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Preflight calibration of the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment polarization modulation package based on liquid-crystal
Néstor Uribe-Patarroyo1, Alberto Alvarez-Herrero, Valentín Martínez Pillet
1Laboratorio de Instrumentación Espacial, Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. uribepnr@gmail.com
Applied Optics
|August 4, 2012
Summary
The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) instrument
Area of Science:
- Solar physics
- Instrument calibration
- Polarimetry
Background:
- The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is a Stokes spectropolarimeter on the SUNRISE balloon project.
- It measures solar magnetic fields using liquid-crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) for polarization modulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To study, characterize, and calibrate the polarization modulation package (PMP) of the IMaX instrument.
- To ensure accurate measurement of Stokes parameters with high signal-to-noise ratio.
Main Methods:
- Developed a dedicated calibration system replicating IMaX's optical and environmental conditions.
- Calibrated the PMP in vacuum and at various temperatures, simulating in-flight conditions.
- Performed pixel-by-pixel calibration to account for LCVR inhomogeneities.
Main Results:
- Achieved high total efficiency (0.972) in vacuum calibration, close to theoretical maximum.
- Obtained a low condition number (0.522) for the demodulation matrix, indicating good performance.
- Demonstrated that pixel-by-pixel calibration effectively manages LCVR inhomogeneities.
Conclusions:
- The IMaX PMP calibration system is effective and achieves high performance.
- Pixel-by-pixel calibration is sufficient to maintain high efficiencies despite LCVR inhomogeneities.
- The results support the reliability of IMaX data for solar magnetic field measurements.
