Spectropolarimetric Inversions

Understanding the state of the plasma in the solar chromosphere is challenging because the radiation and plasma in this layer are influenced by conditions from other layers of the solar atmosphere. To address this, scientists use inversion methods to create a model of the atmosphere that can match observed spectra. The most sophisticated methods involve a detailed model that includes temperature, velocity in the line of sight, turbulent velocity, the three components of the magnetic field, and gas and electron pressure.

In March 2024, I was able to work with the author of the STockholm Inversion Code (STiC) to analyze data gathered from the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST) to study spectral lines that sample the upper chromosphere. STiC facilitates the processing of lines from multiple atoms in non-LTE, also including partial redistribution effects in angle and frequency of scattered photons.