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Title: IMPROVED SEARCH OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS DATABASES FOR SPECTRO-POLARIMETRIC INVERSION

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 (United States)
  2. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, c/Via Lactea s/n, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)
  3. THEMIS, CNRS UPS 853, c/Via Lactea s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)

We describe a simple technique for the acceleration of spectro-polarimetric inversions based on principal component analysis (PCA) of Stokes profiles. This technique involves the indexing of the database models based on the sign of the projections (PCA coefficients) of the first few relevant orders of principal components of the four Stokes parameters. In this way, each model in the database can be attributed a distinctive binary number of 2{sup 4n} bits, where n is the number of PCA orders used for the indexing. Each of these binary numbers (indices) identifies a group of ''compatible'' models for the inversion of a given set of observed Stokes profiles sharing the same index. The complete set of the binary numbers so constructed evidently determines a partition of the database. The search of the database for the PCA inversion of spectro-polarimetric data can profit greatly from this indexing. In practical cases it becomes possible to approach the ideal acceleration factor of 2{sup 4n} as compared to the systematic search of a non-indexed database for a traditional PCA inversion. This indexing method relies on the existence of a physical meaning in the sign of the PCA coefficients of a model. For this reason, the presence of model ambiguities and of spectro-polarimetric noise in the observations limits in practice the number n of relevant PCA orders that can be used for the indexing.

OSTI ID:
22130950
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 773, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English