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Two Centuries of Solar Polarimetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2015

J. W. Harvey
J. W. Harvey*
Affiliation:
National Solar Observatory, Tucson AZ, 85719, USA email: jharvey@nso.edu
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Abstract

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In 1811, François Arago observed the disk of the Sun with his “lunette polariscopique”. From the absence of detectable polarization compared with his laboratory observations of glowing solids, liquids, and flames he concluded that the Sun's visible surface is an incandescent gas. From this beginning, thanks to orders of magnitude technology improvements, a remarkable amount of what we know about the physics of the Sun has continued to flow from solar polarimetry. This short review compares some selected polarimetric discoveries with subsequent recent observations to illustrate the tremendous progress of solar polarimetry during the last two centuries.

Keywords

Polarizationinstrumentation: polarimetersSun: generalhistory and philosophy of astronomy

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