Exploring the Dynamics of the Solar Corona with RAISE (Rapid Acquisition Imaging Spectrograph Experiment)
Abstract
The Rapid Acquisition Imaging Spectrograph Experiment (RAISE) instrument will launch fall of 2006 on a NASA sounding rocket and contains an extremely high speed scanning-slit imaging spectrograph to observe and analyze dynamics and heating of the solar chromosphere and corona on time scales as short as 100 ms, with TRACE-like spatial resolution and a velocity sensitivity of 1 km/sec. High speed imaging from TRACE has shown that rapid motions and reconnection are central to the physics of the transition region and corona, but cannot resolve the differences between propagating phenomena and bulk motion. SoHO/CDS and SoHO/SUMER have yielded intriguing measurements of motion and heating in the solar atmosphere, and Solar-B/EIS will capture EUV spectra of flares in progress; but no currently operating instrument can capture spectral information in the chromosphere, transition region, or cool corona on the 1-10 Hz time scale required for few-second cadence spectral imaging or rapid wave motion studies. RAISE is uniquely suited to exploring this hard-to-reach domain. The complete investigation will probe three general topics that are accessible only with our instrument's unique capabilities, and that can be advanced with a single rocket flight: 1) Small-scale multithermal dynamics in active-region loops; 2) the strength, spectrum, and location of high frequency waves in the solar atmosphere; and 3) the nature of transient brightenings in the solar network.
- Publication:
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AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting #37
- Pub Date:
- June 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006SPD....37.0603G