Off disk-center potential field calculations using vector magnetograms

We investigate a potential field calculation for off disk-center vector magnetograms that uses all the three components of the measured field. There is neither any need for interpolation of grid points between the image plane and the heliographic plane nor for an extension or a truncation to a heliographic rectangle. Hence, the method provides the maximum information content from the photospheric field as well as the most consistent potential field independent of the viewing angle. The introduction of polarimetric noise produces a less tolerant extrapolation procedure than using the line-of-sight extrapolation, but the resultant standard deviation is still small enough for the practical utility of this method.National Research Council Resident Research Associate on leave from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 560034, India.