Calibration of Spectropolarimetry channel of Visible Emission Line Coronagraph onboard Aditya-L1

TL;DR

This paper details the calibration process of the spectropolarimetry channel of the VELC instrument on Aditya-L1, enabling precise measurements of the solar corona's magnetic field through spectropolarimetric observations.

Contribution

It presents the instrumental calibration procedures and validation of the spectropolarimetry channel for the first time for the Aditya-L1 mission's VELC instrument.

Findings

Calibration and demodulation matrices successfully derived and tested in laboratory conditions.

The calibration enhances the accuracy of coronal magnetic field measurements.

The instrument is now capable of generating reliable Stokes maps for solar magnetic field analysis.

Abstract

The magnetic field strength and its topology play an important role in understanding the formation, evolution, and dynamics of the solar corona. Also, it plays a significant role in addressing long-standing mysteries such as coronal heating problem, origin and propagation of coronal mass ejections, drivers of space weather, origin and acceleration of solar wind, and so on. Despite having photospheric magnetograms for decades, we do not have reliable observations of coronal magnetic field strengths today. To measure the coronal magnetic field precisely, the spectropolarimetry channel of the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) on board the Aditya-L1 mission is designed. Using the observations of coronal emission line Fe XIII [10747{\AA~}], it is possible to generate full Stokes maps (I, Q, U, and V) that help in estimating the Line-of-Sight (LOS) magnetic field strength and to derive the magnetic field topology maps of solar corona in the Field of View (FOV) (1.05 -- 1.5~R$_{\odot}$). In this article, we summarize the instrumental details of the spectropolarimetry channel and detailed calibration procedures adopted to derive the modulation and demodulation matrices. Furthermore, we have applied the derived demodulation matrices to the observed data in the laboratory and studied their performance.