SOLARNET Conference: The Many Scales of the Magnetic Sun

A New Instrument for Synoptic Space Weather Observations

Not scheduled

20m

Haus H, Telegrafenberg

Poster presentation 1) Latest facilities to observe fundamental processes - space missions, telescopes, and instrumentation Latest facilities to observe fundamental processes - space missions, telescopes, and instrumentation

Speaker

Fallon Konow (Georgia State University / Sapienza Università di Rome / Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata" / Instituto Nazionale Di Astrofisica)

Description

We can deduce the magnetic and dynamic status of the Sun and its possible dependence on the magnetic cycle using continuous, multi-height observations of the solar atmosphere. This activity, in turn, is critical in identifying potential precursors of space weather events such as flares and coronal mass ejections. Furthermore, multi-height observations allow us to probe the propagation of magneto-acoustic-gravity waves through the solar atmosphere, potentially providing insight into other solar phenomena, such as the heating of the upper chromosphere/corona. To investigate these phenomena, we describe the design and construction of a multi-nodal synoptic telescope network to observe the entire disk of the Sun. This network currently comprises of two instruments, the Tor Vergata Solar Synoptic Telescope (TSST) under construction at Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, to be mounted in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, and the Mojave Solar Observatory (MSO) located in Apple Valley California. MSO houses a dual Na and K channel magneto-optical filter (MOF)-based telescope currently able to observe on-sky with the addition of a He MOF (to observe the upper chromosphere) currently in development. TSST consists of a lab-tested K MOF channel and a broadband Hα filter which aims to be sky-ready by the end of 2023. With the completion and installation of the TSST, the two nodes will observe for an average of 20 hours a day, obtaining line-of-sight velocity and magnetic field vector observations (Dopplergrams and magnetograms, respectively), which we will use to analyze and predict space weather events. This presentation focuses on the technical developments of the observatories themselves: the optical design of MOF-based telescopes, the mounting and enclosure of the TSST, the technological development of He-based MOFs, and the observing plan for the future of the multi-nodal network. Additionally, we present preliminary Doppler- and magnetogram observations from MSO. With this, we show that this network is a low-cost robotic facility capable of obtaining the necessary observations to study space weather events.