Issue |
A&A
Volume 434, Number 3, May II 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 1183 - 1189 | |
Section | The Sun | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041654 | |
Published online | 18 April 2005 |
Absence of linear polarization in Hα emission of solar flares
1
IRSOL, 6605 Locarno-Monti, Switzerland e-mail: mbianda@irsol.ch
2
Institute of Astronomy, ETH-Zentrum, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
3
Faculty of Mathematics and Science, University of Zurich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
4
Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, Am Brückweg 26, 65428 Rüsselsheim, Germany
Received:
13
July
2004
Accepted:
17
January
2005
High sensitivity observations of Hα polarization of 30 flares of different sizes and disk positions are reported. Both filter and spectrographic techniques have been used. The ZIMPOL system eliminates spurious polarizations due to seeing and flat-field effects. We didn't find any clear linear polarization signature above our sensitivity level which was usually better than 0.1%. The observations include an X17.1 flare with gamma-ray lines reported by the RHESSI satellite. These results cast serious doubts on previous claims of linear polarization at the one percent level and more, attributed to impact polarization. The absence of linear polarization limits the anisotropy of energetic protons in the Hα emitting region. The likely causes are isotropization by collisions with neutrals in the chromosphere and defocusing by the converging magnetic field.
Key words: polarization / Sun: flares / techniques: polarimetric
© ESO, 2005
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.