• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.39-47
• /
• 2008

Spectral line profiles of filaments/prominences to be observed by the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS) are studied. The main spectral lines of interests are $H{\alpha}$, Ca II 8542, and Ca II K. FISS has a high spectral resolving power of $2{\times}10^5$, and supports simultaneous dual-band recording. This instrument will be installed at the 1.6m New Solar Telescope (NST) of Big Bear Solar Observatory, which has a high spatial resolution of 0.065" at 500nm. Adopting the cloud model of radiative transfer and using the model parameters inferred from pre-existing observations, we have simulated a set of spectral profiles of the lines that are emitted by a filament on the disk or a prominence at the limb. Taking into account the parameters of the instrument, we have estimated the photon count to be recorded by the CCD cameras, the signal-to-noise ratios, and so on. We have also found that FISS is suitable for the study of multi-velocity threads in filaments if the spectral profiles of Ca II lines are recorded together with $H{\alpha}$ lines.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.67-82
• /
• 2007

The basic building block of solar filaments/prominences is thin threads of cool plasma. We have studied the spectral properties of velocity threads, clusters of thinner density threads moving together, by analyzing a sequence of $H{\alpha}$ images of a quiescent filament. The images were taken at Big Bear Solar Observatory with the Lyot filter being successively tuned to wavelengths of -0.6, -0.3, 0.0, +0.3, and +0.6 ${\AA}$ from the centerline. The spectra of contrast constructed from the image data at each spatial point were analyzed using cloud models with a single velocity component, or three velocity components. As a result, we have identified a couple of velocity threads that are characterized by a narrow Doppler width($\Delta\lambda_D=0.27{\AA}$), a moderate value of optical thickness at the $H{\alpha}$ absorption peak($\tau_0=0.3$), and a spatial width(FWHM) of about 1". It has also been inferred that there exist 4-6 velocity threads along the line of sight at each spatial resolution element inside the filament. In about half of the threads, matter moves fast with a line-of-sight speed of $15{\pm}3km\;s^{-1}$, but in the other half it is either at rest or slowly moving with a line-of-sight velocity of $0{\pm}3km\;s^{-1}$. It is found that a statistical balance approximately holds between the numbers of blue-shifted threads and red-shifted threads, and any imbalance between the two numbers is responsible for the non-zero line-of-sight velocity determined using a single-component model fit. Our results support the existence not only of high speed counter-streaming flows, but also of a significant amount of cool matter either being at rest or moving slowly inside the filament.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.311-317
• /
• 2014

Solar chromospheric surges are often reported to contain rotational motion. However, the details of the motion and driving mechanism of the surges are not yet fully understood. Recurrent surges with rotational motion at AR 10930 on the west limb are observed by Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) continuously from 11:21 UT on December 18 to 09:58 UT on December 19, 2006, using the $Ca_{II}$ H broadband filter. We analyze details of the motion including number of turns from the rise of the surge to the fall, axial speed and acceleration. During the observation, rise and fall motion accompanying rotation appears recurrently. There occur a total of 14 surges at AR 10930 over 17 hours. The average duration is 45 minutes, and the average width, and length are 8 Mm, and 39 Mm, respectively. We speculate that the surges occurred by recurrent reconnections between the twisted prominence and large untwisted flux tube.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.45 no.5
• /
• pp.111-116
• /
• 2012

We present a mathematical model that predicts the variation of illuminance during a solar eclipse, considering continuous effects of limb darkening. We assume that (1) the Sun and the Moon constitute perfect spheres, (2) the Moon crosses the Sun with a constant apparent velocity, and (3) sunspots, prominences, and coronae can be neglected. We compare predictions of this model with actual measurements made by M$\ddot{o}$llmann & Vollmer (2006) during a total solar eclipse in Turkey, and with predictions of existing models. The new model is shown to describe the actual phenomenon more accurately than existing models.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.54 no.5
• /
• pp.157-170
• /
• 2021

We investigate flow and magnetic structure of a solar prominence with a focus on how the magnetic field originally determined by subsurface dynamics gives rise to the structure. We perform a magnetohydrodynamic simulation that reproduces the self-consistent evolution of a flow and the magnetic field passing freely through the solar surface. By analyzing Lagrangian displacements of magnetized plasma elements, we demonstrate the flow structure that is naturally incorporated to the magnetic structure of the prominence formed via dynamic interaction between the flow and the magnetic field. Our results explain a diverging flow on a U-loop, a counterclockwise downdraft along a rotating field line, acceleration and deceleration of a downflow along an S-loop, and partial emergence of a W-loop, which may play key roles in determining structural properties of the prominence.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.25-25
• /
• 2010

With the aim of resolving important physical problems in the chromosphere of the Sun, we developed the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph for several years, and at last successfully installed it in the Coude room of the 1.6 meter New Solar Telescope at Big Bear in 2010 May. The instrument is an Echelle spectrograph with imaging capability based on slit scan, and can record two spectral bands (e.g., H alpha band and Ca II 8542 band) simultaneously. The early runs of the instrument produced data of high quality that are suited for the study of quiet Sun, filaments on the disk, prominences outside the limb, active regions and sunspots. We are ready to do good solar sciences using our own instrument, and will be able to do best sciences with the coming improvement of spatial resolution.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.54 no.2
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2021

Observations of line of sight (LOS) Doppler velocity and non-thermal line width in the off-limb solar corona are often used for investigating the Alfvén wave signatures in the corona. In this study, we compare LOS Doppler velocities and non-thermal line widths obtained simultaneously from two different instruments, Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP) and Hinode/EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), on various off-limb coronal regions: flaring and quiescent active regions, equatorial quiet region, and polar prominence and plume regions observed in 2012-2014. CoMP provides the polarization at the Fe xiii 10747 Å coronal forbidden lines which allows their spectral line intensity, LOS Doppler velocity, and line width to be measured with a low spectral resolution of 1.2 Å in 2-D off limb corona between 1.05 and 1.40 RSun, while Hinode/EIS gives us the EUV spectral information with a high spectral resolution (0.025 Å) in a limited field of view raster scan. In order to compare them, we make pseudo raster scan CoMP maps using information of each EIS scan slit time and position. We compare the CoMP and EIS spectroscopic maps by visual inspection, and examine their pixel to pixel correlations and percentages of pixel numbers satisfying the condition that the differences between CoMP and EIS spectroscopic quantities are within the EIS measurement accuracy: ±3 km s-1 for LOS Doppler velocity and ±9 km s-1 for non-thermal width. The main results are summarized as follows. By comparing CoMP and EIS Doppler velocity distributions, we find that they are consistent with each other overall in the active regions and equatorial quiet region (0.25 ≤ CC ≤ 0.7), while they are partially similar to each other in the overlying loops of prominences and near the bottom of the polar plume (0.02 ≤ CC ≤ 0.18). CoMP Doppler velocities are consistent with the EIS ones within the EIS measurement accuracy in most regions (≥ 87% of pixels) except for the polar region (45% of pixels). We find that CoMP and EIS non-thermal width distributions are similar overall in the active regions (0.06 ≤ CC ≤ 0.61), while they seem to be different in the others (-0.1 ≤ CC ≤ 0.00). CoMP non-thermal widths are similar to EIS ones within the EIS measurement accuracy in a quiescent active region (79% of pixels), while they do not match in the other regions (≤ 61% of pixels); the CoMP observations tend to underestimate the widths by about 20% to 40% compared to the EIS ones. Our results demonstrate that CoMP observations can provide reliable 2-D LOS Doppler velocity distributions on active regions and might provide their non-thermal width distributions.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.53 no.4
• /
• pp.87-98
• /
• 2020

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has been developing a next-generation coronagraph (NGC) in cooperation with NASA to measure the coronal electron density, temperature, and speed simultaneously, using four different optical filters around 400 nm. KASI organized an expedition to demonstrate the coronagraph measurement scheme and the instrumental technology during the 2017 total solar eclipse (TSE) across the USA. The observation site was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA. We built an eclipse observation system, the Diagnostic Coronal Experiment (DICE), composed of two identical telescopes to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The observation was conducted at four wavelengths and three linear polarization directions in the limited total eclipse time of about 140 seconds. We successfully obtained polarization data for the corona but we were not able to obtain information on the coronal electron temperature and speed due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of the optical system and strong emission from prominences located at the western limb. In this study, we report the development of DICE and the observation results from the eclipse expedition. TSE observation and analysis with our self-developed instrument showed that a coronagraph needs to be designed carefully to achieve its scientific purpose. We gained valuable experience for future follow-up NASA-KASI joint missions: the Balloon-borne Investigation of the Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the Corona (BITSE) and the COronal Diagnostic EXperiment (CODEX).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.31.4-32
• /
• 2016

Observing the solar atmosphere with ground-based telescopes in the near-infrared has a number of advantages when compared to classical measurements in visible wavelengths. One of them comes from the magnetic sensitivity of spectral lines, which varies as ${\lambda}_g$, where g is the effective $Land{\acute{e}}$ factor of the transition. This wavelength dependence makes the near-infrared range adequate to study subtle spatial or temporal variations of the magnetic field. Spectral lines, such as the photospheric Fe I $1.5648{\mu}m$ spectral line, with a $Land{\acute{e}}$ factor g=3, have often been used in the past for this type of studies. To study the chromosphere, the Ca II IR triplet and the He I $1.0830{\mu}m$ triplet are the most often observed lines. The latter has the additional advantage that the photospheric Si I $1.0827{\mu}m$ is close enough so that photosphere and chromosphere can be simultaneously recorded with a single detector in a spectrograph. The instrument TIP (Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter) has been continuously operating since 1999 at the 70-cm German VTT of the Observatorio del Teide and has been recently moved to the 1.5-m German GREGOR. During all this time, results have been obtained concerning the nature of the weak photospheric magnetic field of the quiet sun, magneto-acoustic wave propagation, evolution with the cycle of sunspot magnetic fields, photospheric and chromospheric magnetic field in emerging regions, magnetic field in chromospheric structures such as filaments, prominences, flares, and spicules, etc. In this talk, I will review the main results obtained after all these observations and mention the main challenges for the future. With its novel polarization-free design and a complete suite of instruments aimed at simultaneous (imaging and spectroscopic) observations of the solar photosphere and chromosphere, the EST (European Solar Telescope) will represent a major world-wide infrastructure to understand the physical nature of all these phenomena.