Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 313
This version created on 05 October 2006

New observations of the magnetic vector field across the solar disk


Christoph U. Keller, Utrecht University
John W. Harvey, National Solar Observatory
Carl J. Henney, National Solar Observatory

Full disk solar magnetograms have been available for more than three
decades.  However, those maps only show the line-of-sight magnetic
flux.  The physical quantity we really want to know is the magnetic
field vector along with the filling factor, i.e.  the fractional area
of the resolution element that is occupied by the magnetic field.
While full-star vector magnetograms have already been produced for
other stars using the Zeeman-Doppler imaging technique, similar maps
for the Sun have not been routinely obtained.  Since August 2003, the
SOLIS Vector-Spectromagnetograph has been recording the photospheric
magnetic field vector across the solar disk with high sensitivity and
resolution.  Some of the data are now becoming available for beta
testing, and the first science results are emerging.  The talk will
provide a brief introduction to the instrument and its data products
and then focus on scientific highlights from the first three years of
operation.  

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