Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011spd....42.1512l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, SPD meeting #42, #15.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
The solar chromosphere and transition region (TR) is highly structured, dynamic, and intimately connected to the corona. It requires more than ten times the energy required to heat the corona, and yet it has received far less interest because of the complexity of the required observational and analytical tools. In the TR the density drops by six orders of magnitude and the temperature increases by three orders of magnitude. Hinode observations reveal the importance the magnetic field has on this region of the solar atmosphere that acts as the interface between the photosphere and the corona. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) was selected for a NASA SMEX mission in 2009 and is scheduled to launch in December 2012. IRIS addresses critical questions in order to understand the flow of energy and mass through the chromosphere and TR, namely: (1) Which types of non-thermal energy dominate in the chromosphere and beyond? (2) How does the chromosphere regulate mass and energy supply to the corona and heliosphere? (3) How do magnetic flux and matter rise through the lower atmosphere, and what roles dos flux emergence play in flares and mass ejections? These questions are addressed with a high-resolution imaging spectrometer that observes Near- and Far-VU emissions that are formed at temperatures between 5,000K and 1.5 x 106 K. IRIS has a field-of-view of 120 arcsec, a spatial resolution of 0.4 arcsec, and velocity resolution of 0.5 km/s. Members of the IRIS investigation team are developing advanced radiative MHD codes to facilitate comparison with and interpretation of observations. We present the status of the IRIS observatory development, which completed its Critical Design Review in December 2010.
de Pontieu Bart
Golub Leon
Kankelborg Charles C.
Lemen James
Schrijver Carolus
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