Abstract
The current model for the polarized brightness (pB) spectrum has a decades-long history of progressively incorporating its dependence on electron density \(N_{\mathrm{e}}\), temperature \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\), and flow velocity in the radial direction \({\boldsymbol{V}}_{\mathrm{e}}\). The \(\mathrm{pB}_{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{e}}}\) spectrum follows the exact shape of the photosphere spectrum, which is not smooth, which is expected from the thermal Doppler broadening of the photosphere spectrum due to the high coronal \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\); the \(\mathrm{pB}_{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{e}}}\) spectrum is smooth, but the free coronal electrons remain static and unaffected by solar wind, and the \(\mathrm{pB}_{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{e}}}\) spectrum is red-shifted by electrons seeing a red-shifted photosphere spectrum as they flow away from the Sun as solar wind, which takes a radial direction above \(2.5~\mathrm{R}_{\odot}\) from Sun center. In this article, we review the progress of the above three model pB spectra in describing the observations and highlight the differences, first by comparing the three model pB spectra against wavelength using a model for \(N_{\mathrm{e}}\) and constant values for \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\) and \({\boldsymbol{V}}_{\mathrm{e}}\), and second by generating three model 2D pB maps by integrating over a selected wavelength region in the three model pB spectra along lines of sight passing through the 14 July 2000 (“Bastille Day”) coronal mass ejection (CME) model, which contains 3D information on \(N_{\mathrm{e}}\), \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\), and \({\boldsymbol{V}}_{\mathrm{e}}\). In this regard, the COronal Diagnostic EXperiment (CODEX) on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024 will measure \(N_{\mathrm{e}}\), \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\), and \({\boldsymbol{V}}_{\mathrm{e}}\) by matching the measured pB with modeled \(\mathrm{pB}_{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{e}}}\) in selected wavelength regions using multiple filters.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the anonymous reviewer for their time in reviewing the article and for the valuable comments and suggestions. The responses to the majority of the comments were incorporated in the article, which greatly improved the clarity of the presentation. N. Reginald acknowledges that the modeling presented in Section 3 was conducted under the tutelage of Joseph Davila as his Ph.D. thesis supervisor at NASA/GSFC from January 1998 to December 2000 under a NASA Research Fellowship awarded to N. Reginald through the University of Delaware. Measuring \(\mathrm{pB}_{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{e}}\mathrm{V}_{\mathrm{e}}}\) followed the modeling with N. Reginald designing and assembling the Multi Aperture Coronal Spectrograph (MACS), as shown in Figure 13, to simultaneously measure both \(T_{\mathrm{e}}\) and \({\boldsymbol{V}}_{\mathrm{e}}\) during the total solar eclipse of 11 August 1999 in Elazig, Turkey. N. Reginald also acknowledges support by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through Cooperative Agreement 80NSSC21M0180 to The Catholic University of America, Partnership for Heliophysics and Space Environment Research (PHaSER). We thank PSI for sharing the Bastille Day coronal model data made available through the CCMC at NASA-GSFC that allowed us to carry out the computations in Section 4.
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N. Reginald: Wrote the IDL codes for the three polarized brightness models in Section 3 and created all the figures. L. Rastaetter: Wrote the IDL code to read the electron density, temperature, and radial velocity data along lines of sight passing through the Bastille Day CME model that were used as inputs in the three polarized brightness model spectra to generate the associated polarized brightness maps in Section 4. J. Newmark: Provided the overall structure of the manuscript for the benefit of readers who would want to better understand CODEX. J. Newmark is the PI of CODEX. All the authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Reginald, N., Newmark, J. & Rastaetter, L. A Technique to Measure Coronal Electron Density, Temperature, and Velocity Above \(2.5\ \mathrm{R}_{\odot}\) from Sun Center Using Polarized Brightness Spectrum. Sol Phys 298, 73 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-023-02160-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-023-02160-3