Hinode/EIS Measurements of Active-region Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Abstract The present work illustrates the potential of a new diagnostic technique that allows the measurement of the coronal magnetic field strength in solar active regions by utilizing a handful of bright Fe x and Fe xi lines commonly observed by the high-resolution Hinode/EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS). The importance of this new diagnostic technique is twofold: (1) the coronal magnetic field is probably the most important quantity in coronal physics, being at the heart of the processes regulating space weather and the properties of the solar corona, and (2) this technique can be applied to the existing EIS archive spanning from 2007 to 2020, including more than one full solar cycle and covering a large number of active regions, flares, and even coronal mass ejections. This new diagnostic technique opens the door to a whole new field of studies, complementing the magnetic field measurements from the upcoming DKIST and UCoMP ground-based observatories, and extending our reach to active regions observed on the disk and until now only sampled by radio measurements. In this work, we present a few examples of the application of this technique to EIS observations taken at different times during the EIS mission, and we discuss its current limitations and the steps to improve its accuracy. We also present a list of EIS observing sequences whose data include all of the lines necessary for the application of this diagnostic technique, to help the solar community navigate the immense set of EIS data and to find observations suitable for measuring the coronal magnetic field.