A study of the capabilities for inferring atmospheric information from high-spatial-resolution simulations

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
e-mail: carlos.quintero@iac.es
² Departamento de Astrofísica, Univ. de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, 38205 Spain
³ Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Observatório s/n, 3040-004 Coimbra, Portugal
⁴ High Altitude Observatory, NCAR, PO Box 3000 Boulder, CO, 80307 USA
⁵ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN Northern Ireland, UK
⁶ Institute for Solar Physics, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Centre, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁷ National Solar Observatory, University of Colorado Boulder, 3665 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO, 80303 USA
⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Apdo. de Correos 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain

Received: 11 January 2023
Accepted: 19 May 2023

Abstract

In this work, we study the accuracy that can be achieved when inferring the atmospheric information from realistic numerical magneto-hydrodynamic simulations that reproduce the spatial resolution we will obtain with future observations made by the 4m class telescopes DKIST and EST. We first study multiple inversion configurations using the SIR code and the Fe I transitions at 630 nm until we obtain minor differences between the input and the inferred atmosphere in a wide range of heights. Also, we examine how the inversion accuracy depends on the noise level of the Stokes profiles. The results indicate that when the majority of the inverted pixels come from strongly magnetised areas, there are almost no restrictions in terms of the noise, obtaining good results for noise amplitudes up to 1 × 10⁻³ of I_c. At the same time, the situation is different for observations where the dominant magnetic structures are weak, and noise restraints are more demanding. Moreover, we find that the accuracy of the fits is almost the same as that obtained without noise when the noise levels are on the order of 1 × 10⁻⁴of I_c. We, therefore, advise aiming for noise values on the order of or lower than 5 × 10⁻⁴ of I_c if observers seek reliable interpretations of the results for the magnetic field vector reliably. We expect those noise levels to be achievable by next-generation 4m class telescopes thanks to an optimised polarisation calibration and the large collecting area of the primary mirror.