Multi-dimensional polarized radiative transfer: methods and solar applications

Abstract

Observations of the Sun using modern telescopes as well as numerical simulations of the Sun reveal existence of enormous inhomogeneous structures in the solar atmosphere. The polarized spectrum of the Sun (Second Solar Spectrum), produced due to anisotropic scattering helps to infer the temperature structure, magnetic fields, and other physical properties of the solar atmosphere more accurately. Analysis of the Second Solar Spectrum requires solution of the polarized radiative transfer equation. To take spatial inhomogeneities into account, a solution of the transfer equation in multi-dimensional geometries is necessary. In this paper we present a specialized review of recent developments in the methods to solve multi-dimensional polarized radiative transfer equation and an application of these methods to analyze the observations.