Observations of the forward scattering Hanle effect in the Ca I 4227 Å line

Abstract

Chromospheric magnetic fields are notoriously difficult to measure. The chromospheric lines are broad, while the fields are producing a minuscule Zeeman-effect polarization. A promising diagnostic alternative is provided by the forward-scattering Hanle effect, which can be recorded in chromospheric lines such as the He i 10 830 Å and the Ca i 4227 Å lines. We present a set of spectropolarimetric observations of the full Stokes vector obtained near the center of the solar disk in the Ca i 4227 Å line with the ZIMPOL polarimeter at the IRSOL observatory. We detect a number of interesting forward-scattering Hanle effect signatures, which we model successfully using polarized radiative transfer. Here we focus on the observational aspects, while a separate companion paper deals with the theoretical modeling.