Abstract
Various manners of determination of a magnetic field are reviewed briefly from the standpoint of practicality and uniqueness. Then a practical representation of magnetic fields in terms of a class of force-free magnetic field is described. The proposed scheme is based on the physical consideration that in the chromosphere and lower corona a quasistatic magnetic field must be nearly force-free and that for the class of force-free magnetic field, i.e., ∇×B=αB with α = constant, the magnetic field can be determined uniquely from the observed distribution of the vertical component of a magnetic field. The applicability of the representation is demonstrated by examples and the limitations are discussed.
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
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Nakagawa, Y., Raadu, M.A. On practical representation of magnetic field. Sol Phys 25, 127–135 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00155751
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00155751