Near-infrared spectropolarimeter SCIP

As the name suggests, the Sunrise Chromospheric Infrared spectroPolarimeter (SCIP) is a polarization spectrometer to observe near-infrared radiation emitted from the Sun. The instrument performs polarized spectroscopic measurements of a large number of spectral lines in the near-infrared band. The motion in the solar atmosphere is mainly governed by the magnetic field. The chromosphere, in particular, is highly dynamic. Prevailing shockwaves, wave propagation, and energy release phenomena due to the rearrangement of magnetic field lines (magnetic reconnection), can be observed everywhere. All of these phenomena are closely related to the magnetic field. Therefore, it is important to determine the magnetic field structure in the chromosphere. The strength and direction of the magnetic field can be obtained from the polarization information of the spectral lines. In contrast, if the intensity of the magnetic field is weak, the associated polarization signal is also small. Magnetic field fluctuations, such as waves, are of the order of several gauss, and only appear as polarization signals of about 0.1 %. The SCIP instrument has been developed for precise polarization spectroscopy to capture even these weak signals, and is capable of detecting polarization signals as small as 0.03 %.