Frederic Auchere

Chromospheric Lyman-alpha spectro-polarimeter (CLASP)

One of the biggest challenges in heliophysics is to decipher the magnetic structure of the solar chromosphere. The importance of measuring the chromospheric magnetic field is due to both the key role the chromosphere plays in energizing and structuring the outer solar atmosphere and the inability of extrapolation of photospheric fields to adequately describe this key boundary region. Over the last few years, significant progress has been made in the spectral line formation of UV lines as well as the MHD modeling of the solar atmosphere. It is found that the Hanle effect in the Lyman-alpha line (121.567 nm) is a most promising diagnostic tool for weaker magnetic fields in the chromosphere and transition region. Based on this groundbreaking research, we propose the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) to NASA as a sounding rocket experiment, for making the first measurement of the linear polarization produced by scattering processes and the Hanle effect in the Lyman-alpha line (121.567 nm), and making the first exploration of the magnetic field in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun. The CLASP instrument consists of a Cassegrain telescope, a rotating 1/2-wave plate, a dual-beam spectrograph assembly with a grating working as a beam splitter, and an identical pair of reflective polarization analyzers each equipped with a CCD camera. We propose to launch CLASP in December 2014.

HECOR: a HElium CORonagraphy aboard the Herschel sounding rocket

HECOR (HElium CORonagraph) is a coronagraph designed to observe the solar corona at 30.4 nm between 1.2 and 4 solar radii. The instrument is part of the Herschel sounding rocket payload to be flown from White Sands Missile Range in December 2007. Much like for neutral hydrogen, the residual singly ionized helium present in the corona can be detected because it resonantly scatters the intense underlying chromospheric radiation. Combined with the simultaneous measurements of the neutral hydrogen corona made by SCORE, the other coronagraph of the Herschel payload, the HECOR observations will provide novel diagnostics of the solar wind outflow. HECOR is an externally occulted coronagraph of very simple design. It uses a triple-disc external occulting system, a single off axis multilayer coated mirror and a CCD camera. We present measurements of the EUV mirror roughness and reflectivity, tests of the image quality, and measurements of the stray light rejection performance. The mirror uses a novel multilayer design with three components that give HECOR a high throughput.

DISCOVERY OF UBIQUITOUS FAST-PROPAGATING INTENSITY DISTURBANCES BY THE CHROMOSPHERIC LYMAN ALPHA SPECTROPOLARIMETER (CLASP)

High cadence observations by the slit-jaw (SJ) optics system of the sounding rocket experiment known as the Chromospheric Lyman Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP) reveal ubiquitous intensity disturbances that recurrently propagate in one or both of the chromosphere or transition region at a speed much higher than the sound speed. The CLASP/SJ instrument provides a time series of 2D images taken with broadband filters centered on the Ly(alpha) line at a 0.6 s cadence. The fast propagating intensity disturbances are detected in the quiet Sun and in an active region, and at least 20 events are clearly detected in the field of view of 527 x 527 during the 5-minute observing time. The apparent speeds of the intensity disturbances range from 150 to 350 km/s, and they are comparable to the local Alfven speed in the transition region. The intensity disturbances tend to propagate along bright elongated structures away from areas with strong photospheric magnetic fields. This suggests that the observed propagating intensity disturbances are related to the magnetic canopy structures. The maximum distance traveled by the intensity disturbances is of about 10, and the widths are a few arcseconds, which is almost determined by the pixel size of 1.03. The timescale of each intensity pulse is shorter than 30 s. One possible explanation of the fast propagating intensity disturbances observed by CLASP is magneto-hydrodynamic fast mode waves.

Vacuum ultraviolet spectropolarimeter design for precise polarization measurements

Precise polarization measurements in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region provide a new means for inferring weak magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere of the Sun and stars. We propose a VUV spectropolarimeter design ideally suited for this purpose. This design is proposed and adopted for the NASA-JAXA chromospheric lyman-alpha spectropolarimeter (CLASP), which will record the linear polarization (Stokes Q and U) of the hydrogen Lyman-α line (121.567xa0nm) profile. The expected degree of polarization is on the order of 0.1%. Our spectropolarimeter has two optically symmetric channels to simultaneously measure orthogonal linear polarization states with a single concave diffraction grating that serves both as the spectral dispersion element and beam splitter. This design has a minimal number of reflective components with a high VUV throughput. Consequently, these design features allow us to minimize the polarization errors caused by possible time variation of the VUV flux during the polarization modulation and by statistical photon noise.

Earth-Affecting Solar Causes Observatory (EASCO): A mission at the Sun-Earth L5

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and corotating interaction regions (CIRs) as well as their source regions are important because of their space weather consequences. The current understanding of CMEs primarily comes from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) missions, but these missions lacked some key measurements: STEREO did not have a magnetograph; SOHO did not have in-situ magnetometer. SOHO and other imagers such as the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) located on the Sun-Earth line are also not well-suited to measure Earth-directed CMEs. The Earth-Affecting Solar Causes Observatory (EASCO) is a proposed mission to be located at the Sun-Earth L5 that overcomes these deficiencies. The mission concept was recently studied at the Mission Design Laboratory (MDL), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, to see how the mission can be implemented. The study found that the scientific payload (seven remote-sensing and three in-situ instruments) can be readily accommodated and can be launched using an intermediate size vehicle; a hybrid propulsion system consisting of a Xenon ion thruster and hydrazine has been found to be adequate to place the payload at L5. Following a 2-year transfer time, a 4-year operation is considered around the next solar maximum in 2025.

Formation flyers applied to solar coronal observations: the ASPICS mission

Classical externally-occulted coronagraphs are presently limited in their performances by the distance between the external occulter and the front objective. The diffraction fringe from the occulter and the vignetted pupil which degrades the spatial resolution prevent observing the inner corona inside typically 2-2.5 solar radii. Formation flyers open new perspectives and allow to conceive giant, externally-occulted coronagraphs using a two-component space system with the external occulter on one spacecraft and the optical instrument on the other spacecraft at approximately 100 m from the first one. ASPICS (Association de Satellites Pour lImagerie Coronographique Solaire) is a mission proposed to CNES in the framework of their demonstration program of formation flyers which is presently under study to exploit this technique for coronal observations. In the baseline concept, ASPICS includes three coronagraphs operating in three spectral domains: the visible continuum (K-corona brightness), the HI Lyman alpha emission line at 121.6 nm, and the HeII emission line at 30.4 nm. Their unvignetted fields of view extend from 1.1 to 3.2 solar radii with a typical spatial resolution of 3 arcsec. In order to connect coronal activity to photospheric events, ASPICS further includes two disk imagers. The first one is devoted to the HI Lyman alpha emission line. The second one is a multi-channel instrument similar to SOHO/EIT and devoted to the HeII (30.4 nm), FeIX/X (17.1 nm) and FeXII (19.5 nm) emission lines. Two concepts of the space system are under consideration: a symmetric configuration where the disk imagers and the external occulter are on one spacecraft and the coronagraphs on the other, an asymmetric configuration where the external occulter is on one spacecraft and the scientific instruments are regrouped on the other one.

A Statistical Inference Method for Interpreting the CLASP Observations

On 3rd September 2015, the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP) successfully measured the linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Lyman-

Wave-Front Error Measurements and Alignment of CLASP2 Telescope with a Dual-Band Pass Cold Mirror Coated Primary Mirror [STUB]

alpha

Optical Alignment of the High-Precision UV Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP2) [STUB]

line of the solar disk radiation, revealing conspicuous spatial variations in the

The EUI flight instrument of Solar Orbiter: from optical alignment to end-to-end calibration

Q/I