Correction of magnetograms to estimate the magnetic field strength.
A properly calibrated longitudinal magnetograph is an instrument that measures circular polarization and gives an estimation of the magnetic flux density in each observed resolution element. This usually constitutes a lower bound of the field strength in the resolution element, given that it can be made arbitrarily large as long as it occupies a proportionally smaller area of the resolution element and/or becomes more transversal to the observer. Yet, we know that \emph{arbitrarily stronger} fields are less likely --hG fields are more probable than kG fields, with fields above several kG are virtually absent-- and we may even have some information about its angular distribution. Based on a set of sensible considerations, we derive simple formulae based on a Bayesian analysis to give an improved estimation of the magnetic field strength for magnetographs.
These Python codes reproduce the figures in the paper.