The Hanle effect applied to magnetic field diagnostics

The Hanle effect is the modification by the local magnetic field of the linear polarization parameters of a spectral line. A brief summary of the theory is presented and it is shown how the complete magnetic vector field can be recovered from the interpretation of the Hanle effect in spectral lines polarized by resonance scattering.Proceedings of the Conference Solar Physics from Space, held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), 11–14 November 1980.