A. S. Kudaka

BRIGHT 30 THz IMPULSIVE SOLAR BURSTS

Impulsive 30 THz continuum bursts have been recently observed in solar flares, utilizing small telescopes with a unique and relatively simple optical setup concept. The most intense burst was observed together with a GOES X2 class event on October 27, 2014, also detected at two sub-THz frequencies, RHESSI X-rays and SDO/HMI and EUV. It exhibits strikingly good correlation in time and in space with white light flare emission. It is likely that this association may prove to be very common. All three 30 THz events recently observed exhibited intense fluxes in the range of 10 4 solar flux units, considerably larger than those measured for the same events at microwave and sub-mm wavelengths. The 30 THz burst emission might be part of the same spectral burst component found at sub-THz frequencies. The 30 THz solar bursts open a promising new window for the study of flares at their origin.

Photometry of THz radiation using Golay cell detector

The measurement of THz radiation in the continuum presents new technical challenges concerning materials, frequency filters and detection devices. We present the first results of a radiometric system using Golay cell as a detector, for the whole > 15 THz range, and at discrete frequencies centered at 2, 10 and 30 THz. The system was designed to measure solar THz radiation. It is capable to detect small solar bursts, with a large dynamic range to be able to detect larger events.

Uncooled detectors of continuum terahertz radiation

THz continuum spectral photometry has new and unique applications in different civil and military areas presenting a number of distinctive advantages on the well known microwaves or mid- to near-infrared technologies. THz sensing is essential to investigate the emission mechanisms by high energy particle acceleration processes. Technical challenges appear to diagnose radiation produced by solar flare burst emissions measured from space as well as radiation produced by high energy electrons in laboratory accelerators. THz filters and detectors have been investigated for the construction of solar flare high cadence radiometers to operate outside the terrestrial atmosphere. Experimental setups have been assembled for testing THz continuum radiation response from distinct detectors: adapted commercial microbolometer array, pyroelectric module, and opto-acoustic (Golay cell). The results permitted the final design of a THz double radiometer using Golay cells to be flown in stratosphere balloon missions.

“A New Setup for Ground-based Measurements of Solar Activity at 10 μm” (PASP, 118, 1558 [2006])

The mid-IR (10 μm) temperature scale adopted in the article was inadvertently derived from a calibration made with the camera nearly saturated. It provided a temperature input versus reading temperature ratio of about 36. New calibrations were repeated several times in the following campaigns, one year later, showing a temperature input versus reading temperature ratio of 2. Therefore the published mid-IR burst time profile and derived fluxes should be divided by a factor of 18.

Comparison of 30 THz impulsive burst time development to microwaves, Hα, EUV, and GOES soft X-rays

The recent discovery of impulsive solar burst emission in the 30 THz band is raising new interpretation challenges. One event associated with a GOES M2 class flare has been observed simultaneously in microwaves, H α , EUV, and soft X-ray bands. Although these new observations confirm some features found in the two prior known events, they exhibit time profile structure discrepancies between 30 THz, microwaves, and hard X-rays (as inferred from the Neupert effect). These results suggest a more complex relationship between 30 THz emission and radiation produced at other wavelength ranges. The multiple frequency emissions in the impulsive phase are likely to be produced at a common flaring site lower in the chromosphere. The 30 THz burst emission may be either part of a nonthermal radiation mechanism or due to the rapid thermal response to a beam of high-energy particles bombarding the dense solar atmosphere.

Continuum terahertz radiation detection using membrane filters

Technology of remote sensing in the terahertz range (frequency interval arbitrarily set between 0.1 – 30 THz) is the object of considerable development efforts addressed to a number of new civilian and military applications. Technical challenges appear in the THz sensing of temperature differences above an existing hot surface target, such as radiation patterns produced by high energy electrons in laboratory accelerators, and thermal differentiated structures in the solar disk in space. The efficient suppression of radiation in the visible and near infrared (set arbitrarily for wavelengths ≪ 10 µm) is an essential requirement. An experimental setup has been prepared for testing at room temperature THz materials and detectors, aiming the detection of solar radiation. A custom-made detector consisted in a room-temperature micro-bolometer INO camera with HRFZ-Si window. The THz transmission of two “low-pass” membranes were tested for black body temperatures ranging 300–1000 K: Zitex G110G and TydexBlack. It has been demonstrated that both are effective suppressors of radiation at wavelengths ≪ 15 µm, with the first one exhibiting a small radiation excess, that may be attributed to small visible and NIR allowance. We describe optical setups prepared to detect solar radiation, consisting in a microbolometer camera preceded by a photon pipe, low-pass membrane and band-pass resonant metal mesh, placed at the focus of the 1.5 m reflector for submillimeter waves (SST) at El Leoncito, Argentina Andes.