The Imaging Magnetograph experiment (IMaX) for the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory

The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is a spectropolarimeter built by four institutions in Spain that flew on board the Sunrise balloon-borne telescope in June 2009 for almost six days over the Arctic Circle. As a polarimeter IMaX uses fast polarization modulation (based on the use of two liquid crystal retarders), real-time image accumulation, and dual beam polarimetry to reach polarization sensitivities of 0.1%. As a spectrograph, the instrument uses a LiNbO3 etalon in double pass and a narrow band pre-filter to achieve a spectral resolution of 85 mÅ. IMaX uses the high Zeeman sensitive line of Fe Ə at 5250.2 Å and observes all four Stokes parameters at various points inside the spectral line. This allows vector magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and intensity frames to be produced that, after reconstruction, reach spatial resolutions in the 0.15-0.18 arcsec range over a 50x50 arcsec FOV. Time cadences vary between ten and 33 seconds, although the shortest one only includes longitudinal polarimetry. The spectral line is sampled in various ways depending on the applied observing mode, from just two points inside the line to 11 of them. All observing modes include one extra wavelength point in the nearby continuum. Gauss equivalent sensitivities are four Gauss for longitudinal fields and 80 Gauss for transverse fields per wavelength sample. The LOS velocities are estimated with statistical errors of the order of 5-40 ms-1. The design, calibration and integration phases of the instrument, together with the implemented data reduction scheme are described in some detail.

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Author Martinez Pillet, V.
del Toro Iniesta, J.
Álvarez-Herrero, A.
Domingo, V.
Bonet, J.
González Fernández, L.
López Jiménez, A.
Pastor, C.
Gasent Blesa, J.
Mellado, P.
Piqueras, J.
Aparicio, B.
Balaguer, M.
Ballesteros, E.
Belenguer, T.
Bellot Rubio, L.
Berkefeld, T.
Collados, M.
Deutsch, W.
Feller, A.
Girela, F.
Grauf, B.
Heredero, R.
Herranz, M.
Jerónimo, J.
Laguna, H.
Meller, R.
Menéndez, M.
Morales, R.
Orozco Suárez, D.
Ramos, G.
Reina, M.
Ramos, J.
Rodríguez, P.
Sánchez, A.
Uribe-Patarroyo, N.
Barthol, P.
Gandorfer, A.
Knoelker, Michael
Schmidt, W.
Solanki, S.
Vargas Domínguez, S.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2010-11-17T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:10:18.265696
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:17286
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Martinez Pillet, V., del Toro Iniesta, J., Álvarez-Herrero, A., Domingo, V., Bonet, J., González Fernández, L., López Jiménez, A., Pastor, C., Gasent Blesa, J., Mellado, P., Piqueras, J., Aparicio, B., Balaguer, M., Ballesteros, E., Belenguer, T., Bellot Rubio, L., Berkefeld, T., Collados, M., Deutsch, W., Feller, A., Girela, F., Grauf, B., Heredero, R., Herranz, M., Jerónimo, J., Laguna, H., Meller, R., Menéndez, M., Morales, R., Orozco Suárez, D., Ramos, G., Reina, M., Ramos, J., Rodríguez, P., Sánchez, A., Uribe-Patarroyo, N., Barthol, P., Gandorfer, A., Knoelker, Michael, Schmidt, W., Solanki, S., Vargas Domínguez, S.. (2010). The Imaging Magnetograph experiment (IMaX) for the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d73t9jh3. Accessed 24 June 2025.

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