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Measurements of Faraday Rotation Through the Solar Corona During the 2009 Solar Minimum with the MESSENGER Spacecraft |
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| Authors: | Elizabeth A. Jensen Mario M. Bisi Andrew R. Breen Carl Heiles Toney Minter Faith Vilas |
| Affiliation: | 1. Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ, 85719-2395, USA 2. ACS Consulting/ACS Engineering & Safety, 40 Cypresscreek Pkwy, PMB 370, Houston, TX, 77090, USA 3. Institute of Mathematics and Physics (IMAPS), Aberystwyth University (AU), Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3BZ, Wales (UK) 4. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3411, USA 5. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, WV, 24944, USA |
| Abstract: | Measurements of Faraday rotation through the solar corona were collected using the radio beacon aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft during the longest solar minimum in a century. As MESSENGER entered superior conjunction, the plane of polarization of its radio signal was observed to rotate as it traversed the circularly birefringent plasma of the Sun’s atmosphere. On time scales of less than three hours, these uncalibrated plane of polarization observations of Faraday rotation can be used to investigate the dynamic processes in the solar plasma, such as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Here we describe the MESSENGER Faraday rotation experiment, the data processing conducted to obtain the plane of polarization, and the estimation of error. |
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