  The Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) of the NSO's Synoptic Optical Long-Term
Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) facility is now operational and obtains the
first-ever vector magnetic field measurements of the entire visible solar
hemisphere. To fully exploit the unprecedented SOLIS/VSM data, however, one
must first address two critical problems: first, the study of solar active
regions requires an automatic, physically intuitive, technique for
active-region identification in the solar disk. Second, use of active-region
vector magnetograms requires removal of the azimuthal $180^o$-ambiguity in the
orientation of the transverse magnetic field component. Here we report on an
effort to address both problems simultaneously and efficiently. To identify
solar active regions we apply an algorithm designed to locate complex,
flux-balanced, magnetic structures with a dominant E-W orientation on the disk.
Each of the disk portions corresponding to active regions is thereafter
extracted and subjected to the Nonpotential Magnetic Field Calculation (NPFC)
method that provides a physically-intuitive solution of the 180-degree
ambiguity. Both algorithms have been integrated into the VSM data pipeline and
operate in real time, without human intervention. We conclude that this
combined approach can contribute meaningfully to our emerging capability for
full-disk vector magnetography as pioneered by SOLIS today and will be carried
out by ground-based and space-borne magnetographs in the future.
