Ground-Based Context Observations for the High Energy Solar Physics (HESP) Mission
Abstract
The core instrument in the HESP strawman payload is an X-ray and gamma-ray imaging spectrometer. Physical interpretation of this instrument's data will require a knowledge of the magnetic and thermal context in which the radiating ions and electrons are accelerated and thermalized. Many of the required observations can effectively and economically be made with ground-based optical and radio imagers, spectrometers, and magnetographs. For these reasons, the HESP Science Study Group has included ground-based instruments and observations as an integral part of the baseline HESP mission. The nature of HESP's needs for ground-based instrumentation is well understood as the result of continuing experience with collaborative use of ground-based instruments in coordination with long-duration balloons, SMM, and YOHKOH. Ground-based instruments relevant to HESP include magnetographs (both longitudinal/full disk and vector/active-region), optical and microwave high-resolution imagers and imaging spectrographs, and coronagraphs. The key to a successful HESP mission is adequate ground-based support in three respects: (1) a capability for observations with the appropriate spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution, and polarimetric accuracy, from the point of view of the HESP scientific requirements; (2) sufficiently extensive coordinated ground-based coverage so that complementary data for HESP-selected events is likely to be available throughout the mission; (3) adequate support and the mechanisms so that reduced ground-based data is conveniently available as an integral part of the HESP data base.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #180
- Pub Date:
- May 1992
- Bibcode:
- 1992AAS...180.3305C