Study of Interplanetary Magnetic Field with Atomic Alignment

Details Study of Interplanetary Magnetic Field with Atomic Alignment Study of Interplanetary Magnetic Field with Atomic Alignment

2010-09-28

arxiv.org/abs/1009.5573v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

9 pages, 10 figures, submitted to MNRAS

Scientific paper

We demonstrate a new way of studying interplanetary magnetic field -- atomic alignment. Instead of sending thousands of space probes, atomic alignment allows magnetic mapping with any ground telescope facilities equipped with spectro-polarimeter. The polarization of spectral lines that are pumped by the anisotropic radiation from the sun is influenced by the magnetic alignment, which happens for weak magnetic field (<1G). As a result, the line polarization becomes an excellent tracer of the embedded magnetic field. The method is illustrated by the specific cases of Io and comet Halley that we consider. Magnetometer data from the Galileo mission Io flyby (2002) were used in order to construct the topology of the magnetic field around Jupiter. So as to the data from the vega mission comet Halley flyby(1986). A uniform density distribution of Na was considered and polarization at each point was then constructed. Both spatial and temporal variations of turbulent magnetic field can be traced with this technique as well. For remote regions like the the boundary with interstellar medium, atomic alignment provides a unique diagnostics of magnetic field, which is crucial for understanding the physical processes like the IBEX ribbons discovered recently.

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