First flight of the Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) instrument

Duncan, Nicole; Saint-Hilaire, Pascal; Shih, Albert Y.; Hurford, G. J.; Bain, H. M.; Amman, M.; Mochizuki, Brent; Hoberman, Jane; Olson, J. Pocahontas; Maruca, Bennett A.; Godbole, N. M.; Smith, David M.; Sample, J. G.; Kelley, N. A.; Zoglauer, Andreas; Caspi, Amir; Kaufmann, P.; Boggs, Steven E.; Lin, R. P.

doi:10.1117/12.2233859

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Sonic anemometers have also been flown at lower altitudes on airplanes (Cruette et al, 2000) and tethered balloons (Canut et al, 2016). TILDAE recently flew as an "add-on" experiment to GRIPS (Gamma-Ray Interferometer/Polarimeter for Solar flares) (Shih et al, 2012;Duncan et al, 2016), which was launched on a long-duration zero-pressure balloon that typically flies for 7…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of and First Observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

Maruca¹,

Marino²,

Sundkvist³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. Though the presence of intermittent turbulence in the stratosphere has been well established, much remains unknown about it. In-situ observations of this phenomenon, which have provided the greatest detail of it, have mostly been achieved via sounding balloons (i.e., small balloons which burst at peak altitude) carrying constant-temperature hot wire anemometers (CTA's). The Turbulence and Intermittency Long-Duration Atmospheric Experiment (TILDAE) was developed to test a new paradigm for stratospheric observations. Rather than flying on a sounding balloon, TILDAE was incorporated as an add-on experiment to the payload of a NASA long-duration balloon mission that launched in January, 2016 from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Furthermore, TILDAE's key instrument was a sonic anemometer, which (relative to a CTA) provides better-calibrated measurements of wind velocity and a more-robust separation of velocity components. During the balloon's ascent, TILDAE's sonic anemometer provided atmospheric measurements up to an altitude of about 18 km, beyond which the ambient air pressure was too low for the instrument to function properly. Efforts are currently underway to scientifically analyze these observations of small-scale fluctuations in the troposphere, tropopause, and stratosphere and to develop strategies for increasing the maximum operating altitude of the sonic anemometer.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of and First Observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

Maruca¹,

Marino²,

Sundkvist³

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…GRIPS, being a solar observatory, carried a fullyautomated pointing-control system (Shih et al, 2012;Duncan et al, 2016). Two motors controlled the orientation of the gondola: one rotated the entire gondola to establish its azimuth, and the other rotated the telescope boom to the appropriate elevation.…”

Section: Sonic Anemometermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 of Duncan et al, 2016). The arm was affixed to the gondola just below its azimuth motor and extended the anemometer's sensor head approximately 1.7 m from that point.…”

Section: Sonic Anemometermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TILDAE recently flew as an "add-on" experiment to GRIPS (Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares) (Shih et al, 2012;Duncan et al, 2016), which was launched on a long-duration zero-pressure balloon that typically flies for 7 to 15 days and at altitudes up to about 40 km (NASA, 2015). After its initial ascent, this type of balloon travels at nearly the velocity of the wind 1 and changes altitude very smoothly and gradually (largely in response to diurnal variations in solar elevation and the slow loss of helium from the balloon).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Overview of and first observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Though the presence of intermittent turbulence in the stratosphere has been well established, much remains unknown about it. In situ observations of this phenomenon, which have provided the greatest details of it, have mostly been achieved via sounding balloons (i.e., small balloons which burst at peak altitude) carrying constanttemperature "hot-wire" anemometers (CTAs). The Turbulence and Intermittency Long-Duration Atmospheric Experiment (TILDAE) was developed to test a new paradigm for stratospheric observations. Rather than flying on a sounding balloon, TILDAE was incorporated as an "add-on" experiment to the payload of a NASA long-duration balloon mission that launched in January 2016 from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Furthermore, TILDAE's key instrument was a sonic anemometer, which (relative to a CTA) provides bettercalibrated measurements of wind velocity and a more robust separation of velocity components. During the balloon's ascent, TILDAE's sonic anemometer provided atmospheric measurements up to an altitude of about 18 km, beyond which the ambient air pressure was too low for the instrument to function properly. Efforts are currently underway to scientifically analyze these observations of small-scale fluctuations in the troposphere, tropopause, and stratosphere and to develop strategies for increasing the maximum operating altitude of the sonic anemometer.

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“…10 events, most notably flares, 12 where the emissions are related to highly accelerated particles. Instrumental developments during the last decade materialized in successful missions that improved the quality of polarization measurements in terms of polarimetric sensitivity, energy range (e.g., to Gamma-ray 13 ) and spatial resolution, see e.g., Refs. 14, 15 and 16.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Instrumentation for solar spectropolarimetry: state of the art and prospects

Iglesias

Feller

2019

Opt. Eng.

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Given its unchallenged capabilities in terms of sensitivity and spatial resolution, the combination of imaging spectropolarimetry and numeric Stokes inversion represent the dominant technique currently used to remotely sense the physical properties of the solar atmosphere, and in particular, its important driving magnetic field. Solar magnetism manifests itself in a wide range of spatial, temporal and energetic scales. The ubiquitous but relatively small and weak fields of the so called quiet Sun are believed today to be crucial for answering many open questions in solar physics, some of which have substantial practical relevance due to the strong Sun-Earth connection. However, such fields are very challenging to detect because they require spectropolarimetric measurements with high spatial (subarcsec), spectral (< 100 m) and temporal (< 10 s) resolution along with high polarimetric sensitivity (< 0.1% of the intensity). In this review we collect and discuss both well-established and upcoming instrumental solutions developed during the last decades to push solar observations towards the above-mentioned parameter regime. This typically involves design trade-offs due to the high dimensionality of the data and signal-to-noise-ratio considerations, among others. We focus on the main three components that form a spectropolarimeter, namely, wavelength discriminators, the devices employed to encode the incoming polarization state into intensity images (polarization modulators), and the sensor technologies used to register them. We consider the instrumental solutions introduced to perform this kind of measurements at different optical wavelengths and from various observing locations, i.e., ground-based, from the stratosphere or near space.

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First flight of the Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) instrument

Cited by 15 publications

References 20 publications

Overview of and First Observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

Overview of and First Observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

Overview of and first observations from the TILDAE High-Altitude Balloon Mission

Instrumentation for solar spectropolarimetry: state of the art and prospects

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