Spectropolarimeter on-board the Aditya-L1: Polarization Modulation and Demodulation

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design and data processing challenges of the spectropolarimeter on the Aditya-L1 mission, focusing on polarization modulation, demodulation, and optimizing data volume for high signal-to-noise ratio measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a method to optimize data volume by selecting the number of samples per half rotation and proposes a solution to handle modulation matrix variations across cycles.

Findings

Optimized sampling reduces data volume.

Identified impact of modulation matrix mismatch.

Proposed correction method for cycle-to-cycle variations.

Abstract

One of the major science goals of the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload aboard the Aditya-L1 mission is to map the coronal magnetic field topology and the quantitative estimation of longitudinal magnetic field on routine basis. The infrared (IR) channel of VELC is equipped with a polarimeter to carry out full Stokes spectropolarimetric observations in the Fe XIII line at 1074.7~nm. The polarimeter is in dual-beam setup with continuously rotating waveplate as the polarization modulator. Detection of circular polarization due to Zeeman effect and depolarization of linear polarization in the presence of magnetic field due to saturated Hanle effect in the Fe~{\sc xiii} line require high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Due to limited number of photons, long integration times are expected to build the required SNR. In other words signal from a large number of modulation cycles are to be averaged to achieve the required SNR. This poses several difficulties. One of them is the increase in data volume and the other one is the change in modulation matrix in successive modulation cycles. The latter effect arises due to a mismatch between the retarder's rotation period and the length of the signal detection time in the case of VELC spectropolarimeter (VELC/SP). It is shown in this paper that by appropriately choosing the number of samples per half rotation the data volume can be optimized. A potential solution is suggested to account for modulation matrix variation from one cycle to the other.