SOPHIE: a solar EUV multilayer reflecting coronagraph
Abstract
SOPHIE (Solar Photometric Helium Imaging Experiment) is a design for a new space-borne EUV multi-layer reflecting coronagraph to obtain full coronal field-of-view (solar disk and 1.1 to 3.0 solar radii above the limb) observations in He II 304 angstrom, and to measure the coronal helium abundance as a function of structure and time in the corona. Knowledge of the coronal helium abundance is fundamental to understanding the dynamics of the solar wind acceleration region, yet its value is not well known. SOPHIE will open up a new observational domain by providing full field-of-view coronagraph observations of helium, as opposed to electrons observed with traditional white light coronagraphs. Moreover, it has been recognized in the last several years that time variable phenomena is important and relevant to every aspect of the transition region and corona.
- Publication:
-
X-Ray and Ultraviolet Spectroscopy and Polarimetry II
- Pub Date:
- December 1998
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.333601
- Bibcode:
- 1998SPIE.3443...61H