1. Design status of ASPIICS, an externally occulted coronagraph for PROBA-3
- Author
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Andres Alia, Jim Van der Meulen, Giuseppe Massone, Michał Mosdorf, Jean-Sébastien Servaye, Russell A. Howard, Michał Ładno, Joe Zender, Jean-Philippe A. Halain, Vít Lédl, Gianalfredo Nicolini, Serge Koutchmy, Carl Jackson, Mauro Focardi, Adrian Dinescu, Steve Buckley, Yvan Stockman, Gerardo Capobianco, Raluca Muller, Karel Patočka, Rafal Graczyk, Jean-Marie Gillis, Konrad Grochowski, Jan Rautakoski, Radek Peresty, Radek Lapáček, Antonios Paschalis, Camille Galy, Jacek Kosiec, Etienne Renotte, Radek Melich, Dominique Mollet, Aline Hermans, Radoslav Darakchiev, Kanaris Tsinganos, Tomáš Vít, Nico Van Vooren, Miroslaw Rataj, Michal Kurowski, Richard Desselle, Alessandro Bemporad, Marcin Darmetko, Tomasz Górski, Lucas Salvador, Estelle Graas, Damien Galano, Arkadiusz Swat, Vladimir Daniel, Łukasz Mosdorf, Piotr Orleanski, Mateusz Mroczkowski, Irina Popescu, Lieve de Vos, Pavel Psota, Roman Rybecký, Cristina Bramanti, Hubert Kasprzyk, Ileana Cernica, Cédric Thizy, Joseph Bernier, Jana Kovačičinová, Philippe Lamy, Brian McGarvey, Andrei Zhukov, Alicja Zarzycka, Maurizio Pancrazzi, Arnaud Debaize, Cornel Solomon, Davide Loreggia, Tomasz Walczak, Federico Landini, Karl Fleury-Frenette, Kevin O'Neill, Agnes Mestreau-Garreau, Michel Thome, François Denis, Marie-Catherine Palau, Bogdan Nicula, N. Kranitis, Sylvie Liébecq, A. Fumel, Emmanuel Janssen, Marco Romoli, Silvano Fineschi, and ITA
- Subjects
Physics ,Spacecraft ,Solar eclipse ,business.industry ,Astronomy ,Space weather ,Solar physics ,Corona ,law.invention ,law ,Coronal mass ejection ,business ,Coronagraph ,Eclipse ,Remote sensing - Abstract
The "sonic region" of the Sun corona remains extremely difficult to observe with spatial resolution and sensitivity sufficient to understand the fine scale phenomena that govern the quiescent solar corona, as well as phenomena that lead to coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which influence space weather. Improvement on this front requires eclipse-like conditions over long observation times. The space-borne coronagraphs flown so far provided a continuous coverage of the external parts of the corona but their over-occulting system did not permit to analyse the part of the white-light corona where the main coronal mass is concentrated. The proposed PROBA-3 Coronagraph System, also known as ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun), with its novel design, will be the first space coronagraph to cover the range of radial distances between ~1.08 and 3 solar radii where the magnetic field plays a crucial role in the coronal dynamics, thus providing continuous observational conditions very close to those during a total solar eclipse. PROBA-3 is first a mission devoted to the in-orbit demonstration of precise formation flying techniques and technologies for future European missions, which will fly ASPIICS as primary payload. The instrument is distributed over two satellites flying in formation (approx. 150m apart) to form a giant coronagraph capable of producing a nearly perfect eclipse allowing observing the sun corona closer to the rim than ever before. The coronagraph instrument is developed by a large European consortium including about 20 partners from 7 countries under the auspices of the European Space Agency. This paper is reviewing the recent improvements and design updates of the ASPIICS instrument as it is stepping into the detailed design phase.
- Published
- 2015
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