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SUNRISE is a balloon-borne telescope with an aperture of one meter. It is equipped with a filter imager for the UV wavelength range between 214 nm and 400 nm (SUFI), and with a spectro-polarimeter that measures the magnetic field of the photosphere using the Fe I line at 525.02 nm that has a Lande factor of 3. SUNRISE performed its first science flight from 8 to 14 June 2009. It was launched at the Swedish ESRANGE Space Center and cruised at an altitude of about 36 km and geographic latitudes between 70 and 74 degrees to Somerset Island in northern Canada. There, all data, the telescope and the gondola were successfully recovered. During its flight, Sunrise achieved high pointing stability during 33 hours, and recorded about 1.8 TB of science data. Already at this early stage of data processing it is clear that SUNRISE recorded UV images of the solar photosphere, and spectropolarimetric measurements of the quiet Sun's magnetic field of unprecedented quality (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Over the last decade spectro-polarimetry evolved to ever higher sensitivity levels. New techniques and instruments allow us to address weak polarization signals, which are caused by scattering in the solar atmosphere. In this paper a review on the development of spectro-polarimetric investigations of scattering physics and its coupling to the solar magnetic field will be given. Starting from a technical point of view it will be demonstrated how our understanding of scattering phenomena and their role in solar physics in general has reached its current state. An outlook on future spectro-polarimetry with new large solar telescopes concludes this review.