CLASP2: The Chromospheric LAyer Spectro-Polarimeter

Abstract

A major remaining challenge for heliophysicsis to decipher the magnetic structure of the chromosphere, due to its 'large role in defining how energy is transported into the corona and solar wind' (NASA's Heliophysics Roadmap). Recent observational advances enabled by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) have revolutionized our view of the critical role this highly dynamic interface between the photosphere and corona plays in energizing and structuring the outer solar atmosphere. Despite these advances, a major impediment to better understanding the solar atmosphere is our lack of empirical knowledge regarding the direction and strength of the magnetic field in the upper chromosphere. Such measurements are crucial to address several major unresolved issues in solar physics: for example, to constrain the energy flux carried by the Alfven waves propagating through the chromosphere (De Pontieuet al., 2014), and to determine the height at which the plasma β = 1 transition occurs, which has important consequences for the braiding of magnetic fields (Cirtainet al., 2013; Guerreiroet al., 2014), for propagation and mode conversion of waves (Tian et al., 2014a; Straus et al., 2008) and for non-linear force-free extrapolation methods that are key to determining what drives instabilities such as flares or coronal mass ejections (e.g., De Rosa et al., 2009). The most reliable method used to determine the solar magnetic field vector is the observation and interpretation of polarization signals in spectral lines, associated with the Zeeman and Hanle effects. Magnetically sensitive ultraviolet spectral lines formed in the upper chromosphere and transition region provide a powerful tool with which to probe this key boundary region (e.g., Trujillo Bueno, 2014). Probing the magnetic nature of the chromosphere requires measurement of the Stokes I, Q, U and V profiles of the relevant spectral lines (of which Q, U and V encode the magnetic field information).