Hinode AR and Flare Observations

SCIENCE & MISSION SYSTEMS

9 December 2008 Dr. Jonathan CirtainHinode Deputy Project Scientist

Hinode AR and Flare Observations

Solar Cycle 24

Hinode Science Goals



Overview

• Hinode AR and Flare past Observations

• Hinode AR and Flare planning– Capabilities– AR observation plans– Flare Observation

plans• External Requests• Data Access



Hinode Active Region Observations

• EIS slot movies (w/raster) provide unique opportunities to observe flares (40” & 240”)




• NFI/SOT is capable of making high-cadence high resolution line-of-sight magnetograms




BFI/SOT: Can make high cadence high-resolution images in visible and near UV


Hinode Flare Observations


XRT has only made a few flare observations, but they are really impressive!


Flare Mode of Operation

• Each instrument is capable of response to a flare– XRT can take Flare Patrol images on a pre-

specified cadence– Once the flare flag is raised XRT, SOT, and

EIS can change to a designated flare program• SOT can use the FPI to determine the position of

the flare and center on that region!

– XRT can store pre-flare data in a special buffer



XRT Active region planed observations

• Temperature – Multiple filter

observations

• Topology– High resolution with

moderate FOV and 1-3 filters

• Dynamics– High cadence (10-30

sec btw images) and single filter



EIS Active Region Planned Observations

• Sit & Stare

– Large line list with Fe VIII – Fe XXIV coverage (some lines missing)

– Ca XIV, XV, XVI

– Density sensitive lines at several different peak formation temperatures

– Many lines formed from 0.1—1 MK (Mg, Si, O, Ne) for elemental fractionation measurements.

• Slit + Slot

– Unique EIS observing technique provides context imagery over several different narrow passbands

– Line list is reduced in most cases

• Other



EIS Flare Planned Observations

• Sit and Stare• “Picket Fence”

– Fe XII, XV, XVII, XXIII, XIV (2)

– Ca XVII– He II (25.6 nm)– 5s exposures, 1

minute raster cadence

• Slot (Slot + slit)



EIS Observation of a limb flare



SOT Instrumentation/Capabilities

Broadband Filter Imager• Field of view 218" × 109" (full FOV)• CCD 4k × 2k pixel (full FOV), shared with the NFI• Spatial Sampling 0.0541 arcsec/pixel (full resolution)

Spectral coverage

Center (nm) Band width (nm) Line of interest Purpose

388.35 0.7 CN I Magnetic network imaging

396.85 0.3 Ca II H Chromospheric heating

430.50 0.8 CH I Magnetic elements

450.45 0.4 Blue continuum Temperature

555.05 0.4 Green continuum Temperature

668.40 0.4 Red continuum Temperature

Exposure time 0.03 - 0.8 sec (typical)




Narrowband Filter Imager (NFI)• Field of view 328"×164" (unvignetted 264"×164")• CCD 4k×2k pixel (full FOV), shared with BFI• Spatial sampling 0.08 arcsec/pixel (full resolution)• Spectral resolution 0.009nm (90mÅ) at 630nm• Spectral windows (nm) and lines of interest

Center Tunable range Lines Purpose

517.2 0.6 Mg I b 517.27 Chromospheric Dopplergrams and magnetgrams

525.0 0.6 Fe 524.71 Photospheric magnetograms

557.6 0.6 Fe I 557.61 Photospheric Dopplergrams

589.6 0.6 Na I D 589.6 Very weak fields (scattering polarization)

Chromospheric fields

630.0 0.6 Fe I 630.15 Photospheric magnetograms

Fe I 630.25 2.50

Ti I 630.38 0.92 Umbral magnetograms

656.3 0.6 H I 656.28 Chromosphreic structure

Exposure time 0.1 - 1.6 sec (typical)9 December 2008 Dr. Jonathan Cirtain

Hinode Deputy Project Scientist



Stokes Polarimeter

• Field of view along slit 164" (north-south direction)

• Spatial scan range ±164"

• Slit width 0.16"

• Spectral coverage 630.08nm - 630.32nm

• Spectral resolution / sampling 30mÅ / 21.5mÅ

• Measurement of polarization Stokes I,Q,U,V simultaneously with dual beams (orthogonal linear components)

• Polarization signal to noise 103 (with normal mapping)



SOT Flare Planned Observations• Determine photospheric signatures of energy storage and

trigger process that leads to flares.– Shearing motion of magnetic field Time series of magnetic field ⇒

vector data (SP) for 24 hours

– Magnetic emergence and disappearance Time series of ⇒magnetogram & dopplergram (FG:NFI Na)

• Determine the coronal configuration(s) of flare sites.– Magnetic field vector data (SP)

– Ca II H (Hα is preferred) image (chromospheric structure)



SOT Flare Planned Observations

• Capture the temporal evolution of filament eruption as the trigger of flares and arcade structure of flares.– Ca II H image, only applicable

to the limb observations

• Capture the temporal evolution of filament eruption as the trigger of flares and arcade structure of flares.– Ca II H (chromosphere) and

G-band (photosphere) images



SOT standard programs for flare studies




External Requests

• Planning for Hinode operations is performed on a three month cycle that is updated monthly. At the end of every month a monthly meeting is held to confirm the observations for the coming month and to lay out the broad objectives for the second and third months.

• The cut-off for consideration is the 14th day of each month. For example, requests for observations received between the 15th of June and the 14th of July will be presented and discussed at the monthly meeting held at the end of July.

• It is recommended that proposers make their submissions as early as possible, so that the Science Schedule Coordinators (SSCs) have time to refine the proposals to fit the current Hinode situation.

• Late submissions may be considered only exceptionally, if scheduling conflicts can be easily resolved in the operation planning meetings.



Information required in submitted proposals

• Title of the proposed observation.• Short statement describing the observation, and scientific justification.

– This should be as short and concise as possible, but it should still contain all the key details. This statement is important because Hinode's limited data volume situation may make it necessary to modify some planned observations on some days. The Hinode team will refer to this statement when setting priorities for which observations to perform.

– Point of contact. Name and email address.

• Time period of proposed observations, if required.– Provide the start and end dates with the reason.– Provide the minimum number of observation days during the period.– Provide desires and requirements for continuity of observations, for example:

``three consecutive days are desired, but not required,'' ``three consecutive days are required,'' or ``it is not necessary for observations to be on consecutive days.''

• Time window in day, if required.– Provide the ``minimum'' duration with the start and end times in UT, if it is a

coordinated observation with ground-based or space-based observatories.– Specify whether any short interruptions (e.g., for ten-minute synoptics) are allowed

over the observing periods.



Information required in submitted proposals cont.

• Target of interest.– Clearly specify the target of interest.

• Active region, quiet Sun, on-disk, near limb, limb, polar region, etc.• More specific description of the target, if required.

– Indicate whether it is a target of opportunity (TOO). If so, suitably describe the target.

– If a suitable target does not exist during the specified period, we may not perform the proposed observation during that period.

• Required Hinode instruments, and priority of observables.– The Hinode team will take into account the stated priorities if it is necessary to

make adjustments to the proposed observations to fit in the day's available telemetry, etc.

– Specify which Hinode instruments are really required for the observation.– Specify required observables (cadence, FOV vs pixel summation, wavelengths

etc), with priorities, for the primary required Hinode instrument(s).• Provide rough estimate of the total data volume to be collected, if possible. See section 3

for estimating the total data collected.

– If support from non-primary Hinode instrument(s) is also desired, give a rough idea regarding preferable observables (cadence, FOV vs pixel summation, wavelengths etc).



Types of suggested HOP observations

• Coordinated observations with ground-based facilities and space-borne instruments, if the period/time specification is critical.

• Coordination among more than two Hinode instruments if there is a critical time constraint to the observations, or if both instruments are required to consume significant telemetry resources.

• Observations requiring telemetry volumes which are a large percentage of the regular allocations of the instruments.



The XRT HOP request form

• http://solar.physics.montana.edu/HINODE/XRT/joppelganger.html• Chief Coordinators• John M. Davis (john.m.davis (at) nasa.gov)• Tetsuya Watanabe (watanabe (at) uvlab.mtk.nao.ac.jp)• Scientific Schedule Coordinators - Instrument Specific• Solar Optical Telescope (SOT)• Tom Berger (berger (at) lmsal.com)• Takashi Sekii (sekii (at) solar.mtk.nao.ac.jp)• X-Ray Telescope (XRT)• Leon Golub (Golub (at) head.cfa.harvard.edu)• Kiyoto Shibasaki (shibasaki (at) nro.nao.ac.jp)• EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)• Len Culhane (jlc (at) mssl.ucl.ac.uk ) • Tetsuya Watanabe (watanabe (at) uvlab.mtk.nao.ac.jp )• John Mariska (mariska (at) nrl.navy.mil )



Hinode Data Access

• http://darts.isas.jaxa.jp/hinode/top.do

• http://sdc.uio.no/sdc/welcome

• http://sot.lmsal.com/Data.html

• http://xrt.cfa.harvard.edu/DATA

• http://msslxr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk:8080/SolarB/SearchArchive.jsp

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Hinode AR and Flare Observations