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Cross-Calibrating Sunspot Magnetic Field Strength Measurements from the McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope and the Dunn Solar Telescope

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Abstract

In this article we describe a recent effort to cross-calibrate data from an infrared detector at the McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope and the Facility InfraRed Spectropolarimeter (FIRS) at the Dunn Solar Telescope. A synoptic observation program at the McMath–Pierce has measured umbral magnetic field strengths since 1998, and this data set has recently been compared with umbral magnetic field observations from SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI. To further improve on the data from McMath–Pierce, we compared the data with measurements taken at the Dunn Solar Telescope with far greater spectral resolution than has been possible with space instrumentation. To minimise potential disruption to the study, concurrent umbral measurements were made so that the relationship between the two datasets can be most accurately characterised. We find that there is a strong agreement between the umbral magnetic field strengths recorded by each instrument, and we reduced the FIRS data in two different ways to successfully test this correlation further.

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Notes

  1. http://nsosp.nso.edu/dst/smex .

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Acknowledgments

We thank the referee for their constructive comments that have served to improve the quality of this manuscript. The McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope facility and the Dunn Solar Telescope are operated by the National Solar Observatory. The National Solar Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This publication makes use of data obtained during Cycles 1 and 2 of the DST Service Mode Operations under the proposal IDs P107 and P509.

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Correspondence to Fraser T. Watson.

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Watson, F.T., Beck, C., Penn, M.J. et al. Cross-Calibrating Sunspot Magnetic Field Strength Measurements from the McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope and the Dunn Solar Telescope. Sol Phys 290, 3267–3277 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0803-z

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