The DKIST Instrumentation Suite
Abstract
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope with its four meter diameter aperture will be the largest telescope in the world for solar observations when it is commissioned in the year 2019. In order to harness its scientific potential immediately, DKIST will integrate five instruments that each will provide unique functionality to measure properties of the solar atmosphere at unprecedented spatial resolution.In this paper we discuss the unique capabilities in the DKIST instrument suite that consists of the Visible Broadband Imager (VBI), the Visible Spectro-Polarimeter (ViSP), the Visible Tunable Filter (VTF), the Diffraction-Limited Near-Infrared Spectro-Polarimeter (DL-NIRSP), and the Cryogenic Near-Infrared Spectro-Polarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP).In addition, we will explain the facility's approach to supporting high spatial resolution data acquisition with multiple instruments simultaneously by means of the Facility Instrument Distribution Optics. This system of wavelength separating and interchangeable beamsplitters will enable a variety of different ways to optically configure the light beam to the instruments. This approach ensures that the DKIST instruments can use their individual advantages in a multitude of different observing scenarios. The DKIST instrumentation suite will enable crucial new insights into complex physical processes that occur on spatial scales that are smaller than any solar structure observed in the past.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Solar Physics Division Abstracts #47
- Pub Date:
- May 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016SPD....4720102W