The Cross Sectional Magnetic Profile of a Coronal Transient

The role of the magnetic field in a coronal mass ejection event has not been unequivocally defined, and may in fact be quite variable in view of the large variety of shapes and sizes of coronal transients. Measurements of the magnetic field associated with these events have thus far been inferred from simultaneously observed radio bursts, which provide no information on the direction of the field and are limited in spatial resolution. Substantial improvement in these two areas could be achieved by continuous monitoring of the Faraday rotation of a linearly polarized spacecraft signal during solar occultation. A coronal event traversing the line-of-sight would yield a characteristic profile in cross section, which would be of value for discriminating between the various models of coronal transients.