ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Low-Temperature Plasma Physics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1569026
This article is part of the Research TopicCalibration Techniques in Plasma ResearchView all 3 articles
A Method to Localize Plasma Density Enhancements Along Lines of Sight to Radio Sources through PSP/WISPR's Field of View
Provisionally accepted
- 1Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States
- 2Southwest Research Institute Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
- 3Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States
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Coronal Faraday rotation (FR) measurements provide a powerful means of measuring the magnetic field of the solar corona and solar wind (along the line of sight (LOS) between a background linearly polarized radio transmitter and a ground-based radio receiver). FR is a path integrated quantity depending on both the plasma density and the magnetic field component along the LOS. Consequently, the fundamental calibration challenge encountered when using radio FR observations to infer the magnetic field structure of the solar wind is distinguishing between the plasma density and magnetic field contributions to the detectable FR. The method presented here will be able to provide localized plasma density information to FR observations for the first time. Using a synthetic field of view of the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR), we perform a tomographic reconstruction of the plasma density in the vicinity of spacecraft. The basis of this technique is described in Kenny et al. (2023, 2024). This article develops the framework to determine the positions, along LOS to radio sources, of the density enhancements we reconstruct tomographically. While still in development, this method provides the necessary foundation to complement and enhance coronal FR measurements, but the applicability of this technique extends beyond coronal FR.
Keywords: Parker Solar Probe, WISPr, white-light tomography, radio Faraday rotation, solar corona, Solar wind, plasma density
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kenny, Kooi, Van Kooten and DeForest. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kenny Kenny, Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States
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