The Wide Field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR)

Details The Wide Field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR) The Wide Field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR)

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsh11b1622p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SH11B-1622

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

[2194] Interplanetary Physics / Instruments And Techniques, [7594] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

The Wide Field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR) will image the Thomson-scattered light from the coronal plasma in the inner corona, with unprecedented spatial resolution, cadence, and sensitivity. WISPR follows on the SECCHI Heliospheric Imager (HI) aboard the STEREO mission, and addresses all four key objectives in the Solar Probe Plus: Report of the STDT (2008): (1) Determine the structure and dynamics of the magnetic fields at the sources of the fast and slow solar wind, (2) Trace the flow of energy that heats the solar corona and accelerates the SW, (3) explore the mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles, (4) explore dusty plasma phenomena and their influence on the solar wind and energetic particle formation. Situated in the ram direction of the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) spacecraft (S/C), WISPR will have the unique ability to image the coronal structures when they are close to the Sun, as they approach, and as they pass over the spacecraft. As a remote sensor, WISPR will connect the structures close to the Sun to the spacecraft and provide important spatial and temporal information; measuring, for example, the properties of the structures generating the shocks and SEPs that will be measured in a few minutes at the S/C. Since the S/C is embedded in the corona, WISPR and the in situ instruments will measure for the first time the same plasma. Also as the SPP transits through the corona, the rapidly-varying viewpoint and high spatial resolution of WISPR will enable tomographic imaging of the corona, and lead to higher fidelity and finer scale 3D reconstructions than are possible with the STEREO mission or single-view rotational tomography. The wide field of view will include at times other inner heliospheric probes (e.g. Solar Orbiter) and will image the outflowing wind that is impinging on that probe. In addition to this standard imaging mode, WISPR opens a new capability for imaging instruments, the measurement of pressure turbulence by employing a high cadence mode (~1 sec) to image a small region in the corona. For the first time, the slopes of the power spectral density from images can be compared directly to the density and magnetic field fluctuations seen in situ as a function of coronal spatial structure and heliocentric distance. In addition, the 1 sec cadence can be generated anywhere within the WISPR field, enabling the study of the transition of the solar wind injected at the tops of the helmet streamers to inertial dissipation scales.

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