TY - JOUR
T1 - CMAG: A Mission to Study and Monitor the Inner Corona Magnetic Field
AU - Orozco Suárez, David
AU - Del Toro Iniesta, Jose Carlos
AU - Bailén Martínez, Francisco Javier
AU - Balaguer Jiménez, María
AU - Álvarez García, Daniel
AU - Serrano, Daniel
AU - Peñin, Luis F.
AU - Vázquez-Ramos, Alicia
AU - Bellot Rubio, Luis Ramón
AU - Atienzar, Julia
AU - Pérez Grande, Isabel
AU - Torralbo Gimeno, Ignacio
AU - Sanchis Kilders, Esteban
AU - Gasent Blesa, José luis
AU - Hernández Expósito, David
AU - Ruiz Cobo, Basilio
AU - Trujillo Bueno, Javier
AU - Erdélyi, Robertus
AU - Davies, Jackie A.
AU - Green, Lucie M.
AU - Matthews, Sarah A.
AU - Long, David M.
AU - Mathioudakis, Michail
AU - Kintziger, Christian
AU - Leenaarts, Jorrit
AU - Fineschi, Silvano
AU - Scullion, Eamon
N1 - Funding information: This work was funded by AEI/MCIN/10.13039/501100011033/(RTI2018-096886-C5, PID2021-125325OB-C5) and ERDF “A way of making Europe”; “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” awards to IAA-CSIC (SEV-2017-0709, CEX2021-001131-S); Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (PAIDI 2020) P20_01307; and a Ramón y Cajal fellowship awarded to DOS. DML is grateful to the Science Technology and Facilities Council for the award of an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (ST/R003246/1).
PY - 2023/11/23
Y1 - 2023/11/23
N2 - Measuring magnetic fields in the inner corona, the interface between the solar chromosphere and outer corona, is of paramount importance if we aim to understand the energetic transformations taking place there, and because it is at the origin of processes that lead to coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, and of most of the phenomena relevant to space weather. However, these measurements are more difficult than mere imaging because polarimetry requires differential photometry. The coronal magnetograph mission (CMAG) has been designed to map the vector magnetic field, line-of-sight velocities, and plane-of-the-sky velocities of the inner corona with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions from space. This will be achieved through full vector spectropolarimetric observations using a coronal magnetograph as the sole instrument on board a spacecraft, combined with an external occulter installed on another spacecraft. The two spacecraft will maintain a formation flight distance of 430 m for coronagraphic observations, which requires a 2.5 m occulter disk radius. The mission will be preferentially located at the Lagrangian L5 point, offering a significant advantage for solar physics and space weather research. Existing ground-based instruments face limitations such as atmospheric turbulence, solar scattered light, and long integration times when performing coronal magnetic field measurements. CMAG overcomes these limitations by performing spectropolarimetric measurements from space with an external occulter and high-image stability maintained over time. It achieves the necessary sensitivity and offers a spatial resolution of 2.5″ and a temporal resolution of approximately one minute, in its nominal mode, covering the range from 1.02 solar radii to 2.5 radii. CMAG relies on proven European technologies and can be adapted to enhance any other solar mission, offering potential significant advancements in coronal physics and space weather modeling and monitoring.
AB - Measuring magnetic fields in the inner corona, the interface between the solar chromosphere and outer corona, is of paramount importance if we aim to understand the energetic transformations taking place there, and because it is at the origin of processes that lead to coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, and of most of the phenomena relevant to space weather. However, these measurements are more difficult than mere imaging because polarimetry requires differential photometry. The coronal magnetograph mission (CMAG) has been designed to map the vector magnetic field, line-of-sight velocities, and plane-of-the-sky velocities of the inner corona with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions from space. This will be achieved through full vector spectropolarimetric observations using a coronal magnetograph as the sole instrument on board a spacecraft, combined with an external occulter installed on another spacecraft. The two spacecraft will maintain a formation flight distance of 430 m for coronagraphic observations, which requires a 2.5 m occulter disk radius. The mission will be preferentially located at the Lagrangian L5 point, offering a significant advantage for solar physics and space weather research. Existing ground-based instruments face limitations such as atmospheric turbulence, solar scattered light, and long integration times when performing coronal magnetic field measurements. CMAG overcomes these limitations by performing spectropolarimetric measurements from space with an external occulter and high-image stability maintained over time. It achieves the necessary sensitivity and offers a spatial resolution of 2.5″ and a temporal resolution of approximately one minute, in its nominal mode, covering the range from 1.02 solar radii to 2.5 radii. CMAG relies on proven European technologies and can be adapted to enhance any other solar mission, offering potential significant advancements in coronal physics and space weather modeling and monitoring.
U2 - 10.3390/aerospace10120987
DO - 10.3390/aerospace10120987
M3 - Article
VL - 10
JO - Aerospace
JF - Aerospace
IS - 12
M1 - 987
ER -