Parallelization of the SIR code for the investigation of small-scale features in the solar photosphere

0506426 - ASÚ 2020 RIV GB eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Thonhofer, S. - Bellot Rubio, L. - Utz, D. - Hanslmeier, A. - Jurčák, Jan
Parallelization of the SIR code for the investigation of small-scale features in the solar photosphere.
Polarimetry: From the Sun to Stars and Stellar Environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015 - (Nagendra, K.), s. 251-256. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, S305. ISBN 9781107078550.
[Symposium of the International Astronomical Union /305./. Punta Leona (CR), 30.11.2014-05.12.2014]
Institutional support: RVO:67985815
Keywords : Sun * photosphere * polarimetric techniques
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)

Magnetic fields are one of the most important drivers of the highly dynamic processes that occur in the lower solar atmosphere. They span a broad range of sizes, from large- and intermediate-scale structures such as sunspots, pores and magnetic knots, down to the smallest magnetic elements observable with current telescopes. On small scales, magnetic flux tubes are often visible as Magnetic Bright Points (MBPs). Apart from simple V/I magnetograms, the most common method to deduce their magnetic properties is the inversion of spectropolarimetric data. Here we employ the SIR code for that purpose. SIR is a well-established tool that can derive not only the magnetic field vector and other atmospheric parameters (e.g., temperature, line-of-sight velocity), but also their stratifications with height, effectively producing 3-dimensional models of the lower solar atmosphere. In order to enhance the runtime performance and the usability of SIR we parallelized the existing code and standardized the input and output formats. This and other improvements make it feasible to invert extensive high-resolution data sets within a reasonable amount of computing time. An evaluation of the speedup of the parallel SIR code shows a substantial improvement in runtime.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0297671