Data-model comparison using FORWARD and CoMP

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of the FORWARD SolarSoft IDL package for comparing coronal magnetic field observations with synthetic data from MHD models, enhancing analysis of coronal polarimetric signals across multiple wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces methods for using FORWARD to directly access and compare IR coronal data from MLSO/CoMP with synthetic observables from MHD models.

Findings

Effective comparison of IR coronal data with MHD models.

Enhanced analysis of coronal magnetic fields.

Integration of multi-wavelength polarimetric data.

Abstract

The FORWARD SolarSoft IDL package is a community resource for model-data comparison, with a particular emphasis on analyzing coronal magnetic fields. FORWARD allows the synthesis of coronal polarimetric signals at visible, infrared, and radio frequencies, and will soon be augmented for ultraviolet polarimetry. In this paper we focus on observations of the infrared (IR) forbidden lines of Fe XIII, and describe how FORWARD may be used to directly access these data from the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (MLSO/CoMP), to put them in the context of other space- and ground-based observations, and to compare them to synthetic observables generated from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models.