Global Measurements of the Magnetic Field of the Inner Heliosphere with the Mileura Wide- Field Array in Support of LWS Sentinels
Abstract
The Mileura Wide-Field Array Low Frequency Demonstrator (MWA) is an 80-300 MHz interferometric radio array consisting of 8000 antennas distributed in 16-antenna tiles over several square kilometers in Mileura Station, Western Australia. Selected by the NSF in June 2006, antenna deployment will begin in 2007, and the array is scheduled to become operational within three years. The primary goal of MWA-LFD is to demonstrate the capabilities of a digital array for conducting groundbreaking heliospheric and astrophysical science through wide fields of view, high sensitivity, and multiple beam capabilities. The heliospheric science goals of MWA are to characterize the density, velocity, and magnetic field of the inner heliosphere, from the outer corona to interplanetary space, and to image and localize solar radio bursts. The recently released Sentinels Science and Technology Definition Team report describes the value of supporting observations from ground-based instruments such as the MWA. We will present the MWA and discuss how we will use the array to reconstruct the magnetic connection between the corona and the inner heliosphere, both during quiet times and in the presence of CMEs. In particular, we will demonstrate how observing simultaneously the Faraday rotation of polarized radio emission from hundreds of galaxies within 80 Rs of the Sun will be used to trace the magnetic field topology out to the planned Sentinels orbit. These measurements will provide a global context for the Sentinels observations.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFMSH51A1455K
- Keywords:
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- 2101 Coronal mass ejections (7513);
- 2134 Interplanetary magnetic fields;
- 7524 Magnetic fields;
- 7845 Particle acceleration;
- 7924 Forecasting (2722)