What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism?
Quiet-Sun regions cover most of the Sun's surface; their magnetic fields contribute significantly to solar chromospheric and coronal heating. However, characterizing the magnetic fields of the quiet Sun is challenging due to their weak polarization signal. The 4 m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telesco...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad98e7 |
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| author | Jiayi Liu Xudong Sun Peter W. Schuck Sarah A. Jaeggli |
| author_facet | Jiayi Liu Xudong Sun Peter W. Schuck Sarah A. Jaeggli |
| author_sort | Jiayi Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Quiet-Sun regions cover most of the Sun's surface; their magnetic fields contribute significantly to solar chromospheric and coronal heating. However, characterizing the magnetic fields of the quiet Sun is challenging due to their weak polarization signal. The 4 m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is expected to improve our understanding of quiet-Sun magnetism. In this paper, we assess the diagnostic capability of the Diffraction Limited Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP) instrument on DKIST for the energy transport processes in the quiet-Sun photosphere. To this end, we synthesize high-resolution, high-cadence Stokes profiles of the Fe i 630 nm lines using a realistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation, degrade them to emulate the DKIST/DL-NIRSP observations, and subsequently infer the vector magnetic and velocity fields. For the assessment, we first verify that a widely used flow tracking algorithm, the Differential Affine Velocity Estimator for Vector Magnetograms, works well for estimating the large-scale (>200 km) photospheric velocity fields with these high-resolution data. We then examine how the accuracy of the inferred velocity depends on the temporal resolution. Finally, we investigate the reliability of the Poynting flux estimate and its dependence on the model assumptions. The results suggest that the unsigned Poynting flux, estimated with existing schemes, can account for about 71.4% and 52.6% of the reference ground truth at $\mathrm{log}\tau =0.0$ and $\mathrm{log}\tau =-1$ . However, the net Poynting flux tends to be significantly underestimated. The error mainly arises from the underestimated contribution of the horizontal motion. We discuss the implications for DKIST observations. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-71fb93be5fc7483f83a0e764cf146bf6 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-71fb93be5fc7483f83a0e764cf146bf62025-08-20T02:25:44ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-01979213910.3847/1538-4357/ad98e7What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism?Jiayi Liu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7290-0863Xudong Sun1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4043-616XPeter W. Schuck2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1522-4632Sarah A. Jaeggli3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5459-2628Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa , 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA ; jiayiliu@hawaii.eduInstitute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa , 34 Ohia Ku Street, Pukalani, HI 96768, USAHeliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USANational Solar Observatory , 22 Ohia Ku Street, Pukalani, HI 96768, USAQuiet-Sun regions cover most of the Sun's surface; their magnetic fields contribute significantly to solar chromospheric and coronal heating. However, characterizing the magnetic fields of the quiet Sun is challenging due to their weak polarization signal. The 4 m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is expected to improve our understanding of quiet-Sun magnetism. In this paper, we assess the diagnostic capability of the Diffraction Limited Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP) instrument on DKIST for the energy transport processes in the quiet-Sun photosphere. To this end, we synthesize high-resolution, high-cadence Stokes profiles of the Fe i 630 nm lines using a realistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation, degrade them to emulate the DKIST/DL-NIRSP observations, and subsequently infer the vector magnetic and velocity fields. For the assessment, we first verify that a widely used flow tracking algorithm, the Differential Affine Velocity Estimator for Vector Magnetograms, works well for estimating the large-scale (>200 km) photospheric velocity fields with these high-resolution data. We then examine how the accuracy of the inferred velocity depends on the temporal resolution. Finally, we investigate the reliability of the Poynting flux estimate and its dependence on the model assumptions. The results suggest that the unsigned Poynting flux, estimated with existing schemes, can account for about 71.4% and 52.6% of the reference ground truth at $\mathrm{log}\tau =0.0$ and $\mathrm{log}\tau =-1$ . However, the net Poynting flux tends to be significantly underestimated. The error mainly arises from the underestimated contribution of the horizontal motion. We discuss the implications for DKIST observations.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad98e7Quiet SunThe SunSolar physicsSolar photosphereSolar magnetic fieldsSpectropolarimetry |
| spellingShingle | Jiayi Liu Xudong Sun Peter W. Schuck Sarah A. Jaeggli What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? The Astrophysical Journal Quiet Sun The Sun Solar physics Solar photosphere Solar magnetic fields Spectropolarimetry |
| title | What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? |
| title_full | What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? |
| title_fullStr | What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? |
| title_short | What Can DKIST/DL-NIRSP Tell Us about Quiet-Sun Magnetism? |
| title_sort | what can dkist dl nirsp tell us about quiet sun magnetism |
| topic | Quiet Sun The Sun Solar physics Solar photosphere Solar magnetic fields Spectropolarimetry |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad98e7 |
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