FORWARD: A Toolset for Multiwavelength Coronal Magnetometry

Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

White, Stephen M.¹  Forland, Blake C.²  Dove, James B.³  Kucera, Therese A.⁴  Fan, Yuhong⁵  Gibson, Sarah E.⁵  Downs, Cooper⁶  Reeves, Katharine K.⁷  Rachmeler, Laurel A.⁸ 

[1] Air Force Research Labs, Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM, USA;Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA;Department of Physics, Metro State University Denver, Denver, CO, USA;Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Greenbelt, MD, USA;High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA;Marshall Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Huntsville, AL, USA;Predictive Science Inc., San Diego, CA, USA;Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium

关键词: Sun: corona;    Sun: magnetic fields;    Sun: X-rays;    Sun: radio;    Sun: infrared;    Sun: EUV;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fspas.2016.00008

学科分类：空间科学

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Determining the 3D coronal magnetic field is a critical, but extremely difficult problem to solve. Since different types of multiwavelength coronal data probe different aspects of the coronal magnetic field, ideally these data should be used together to validate and constrain specifications of that field. Such a task requires the ability to create observable quantities at a range of wavelengths from a distribution of magnetic field and associated plasma -- i.e., to perform forward calculations. In this paper we describe the capabilities of the FORWARD SolarSoft IDL package, a uniquely comprehensive toolset for coronal magnetometry. FORWARD is a community resource that may be used both to synthesize a broad range of coronal observables, and to access and compare synthetic observables to existing data. It enables forward fitting of specific observations, and helps to build intuition into how the physical properties of coronal magnetic structures translate to observable properties. FORWARD can also be used to generate synthetic test beds from MHD simulations in order to facilitate the development of coronal magnetometric inversion methods, and to prepare for the analysis of future large solar telescope data.

【 授权许可】

CC BY