dkist visp e xploring the sun’s magnetic field
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DKIST ViSP E xploring the Sun’s Magnetic Field. Alice Lecinski National Center for Atmospheric Research High Altitude Observatory. DKIST Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will study the sun’s magnetic field in exquisite detail!. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The High Altitude Observatory (HAO) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
DKIST ViSPExploring the Sun’s Magnetic Field
Alice Lecinski
National Center for Atmospheric Research
High Altitude Observatory
DKISTDaniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will
study the sun’s magnetic field in exquisite detail!
Daniel K Inouye, long time Senator of Hawaii, provided crucial support in obtaining funding for this project. It will be located on Haleakala on Maui.
Very aptly named, Haleakala is: House of the sun!
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
DKIST on Haleakala, House of the Sun
DKIST is big, really big. The mirror is 4 meters – 13 feet!It is the largest solar telescope in history.
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
DKIST is has 1600 actuators on the Deformable Mirror to compensate for variations in the earths atmosphere. The actuators move faster than 100 times a second!
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
The sun’s magnetic field reconfigures in wonderful and amazing features and sometimes explosive features. Sunspots, Flares, Coronal Mass Ejections.
Sometimes these are aimed right at the earth.
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
HAO’s instrument,ViSP,
Visual SpectroPolarimeterlooks at the spectra of the sun.
The spectra gives us incredibly detailed information about the sun’s magnetic field.
And ViSP simultaneously measures the spectra at three different wavelengths!
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.SPIE Montreal
ViSP
I Q U VFe I 630.2 nm
ViSPEach wavelength really tells us about different heights in the sun’s atmosphere.
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
So we can develop a 3D picture of the sun’s magnetic field.
And really understand in fine detail what that field is doing!
X
Wavelength
Y
Spectrograph
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.
With that understanding, we hope to predict, and then be able to protect our satellites and power grids.
X
Wavelength
Y
Spectrograph
Alice Lecinski Images courtesy David Elmore, NSO.