SOLAR-C is a Japanese solar physics mission with contributions from the United States and European countries. It features the EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST) for EUV spectroscopy in a wide temperature range (104–107 K). The optical system’s innovation omits an aperture filter, using only a 28 cm off-axis parabolic primary mirror and a diffraction grating assembly composed of two different gratings, resulting in an effective area ten times larger than the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) aboard Hinode. This design offers exceptionally high spatial (0.4 arcseconds) and temporal (1 second) resolutions for EUV-UV imaging spectroscopy across a broad wavelength range (170–212 Å, 464–522 Å, 558–610 Å, 719–847 Å, 928–1043 Å, 1115–1221 Å) within a 100×100 arcsecond field of view. A trade-off study focusing on manufacturability successfully eased the specifications of one grating. This presentation reports the latest optical design, optical alignment policy, sensitivity analysis result, and the current spatial resolution error budget plan.
The EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST) of Solar-C mission is a revolutionary spectrometer that is designed to provide high-quality and high cadence spectroscopic data covering a wide temperature range of the chromosphere to flaring corona to investigate the energetics and dynamics of the solar atmosphere. The EUVST consists of only two imaging optical components; a 28-cm clear aperture off-axis parabolic primary mirror and a two-split ellipsoidal grating without a blocking filter for visible light before the primary mirror to achieve unprecedented high spatial and temporal resolution in EUV-UV imaging spectroscopic observations. For this reason, about 53 W of sunlight is absorbed by the multilayer coating on the mirror. We present an instrumental design of the telescope, particularly, primary mirror assembly which enables slit-scan observations for imaging spectroscopy, an image stabilizing tip-tilt control, and a focus adjustment on orbit, together with an optomechanical design of the primary mirror and its supporting system which gives optically tolerant wavefront error against a large temperature increase due to an absorption of visible and IR lights.
The EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST) of Solar-C mission consists of only two imaging optical components; a 28-cm clear aperture off-axis parabolic primary mirror and a two-split ellipsoidal grating without a blocking filter for visible light before the primary mirror to achieve unprecedented high spatial and temporal resolution in EUV-UV imaging spectroscopic observations. For this reason, about 60 W of sunlight is absorbed by the multilayer coating on the mirror. We report a thermal design of telescope in which the temperature of the primary mirror bonding part and underlying tip-tilt and slit-scanning mechanisms is well lower than a glass transition temperature of adhesive (about 60°C) and thermal deformation of the primary mirror is small, although it is non-negligibly small.
Solar-C (EUVST) is the next Japanese solar physics mission to be developed with significant contributions from US and European countries. The mission carries an EUV imaging spectrometer with slit-jaw imaging system called EUVST (EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope) as the mission payload, to take a fundamental step towards answering how the plasma universe is created and evolves and how the Sun influences the Earth and other planets in our solar system. In April 2020, ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has made the final down-selection for this mission as the 4th in the series of competitively chosen M-class mission to be launched with an Epsilon launch vehicle in mid 2020s. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) has selected this mission concept for Phase A concept study in September 2019 and is in the process leading to final selection. For European countries, the team has (or is in the process of confirming) confirmed endorsement for hardware contributions to the EUVST from the national agencies. A recent update to the mission instrumentation is to add a UV spectral irradiance monitor capability for EUVST calibration and scientific purpose. This presentation provides the latest status of the mission with an overall description of the mission concept emphasizing on key roles of the mission in heliophysics research from mid 2020s.
The EUV high-throughput spectroscopic telescope (EUVST) onboard the Solar-C mission has the high spatial (0.4′′) resolution over a wide wavelength range in the vacuum ultraviolet. To achieve high spatial resolution under a design constraint given by the JAXA Epsilon launch vehicle, we further update the optical design to secure margins needed to realize 0.4′′ spatial resolution over a field of view of 100′′×100′′. To estimate the error budgets of spatial and spectral resolutions due to installation and fabrication errors, we perform a sensitivity analysis for the position and orientation of each optical element and for the grating parameters by ray tracing with the Zemax software. We obtain point spread functions (PSF) for rays from 9 fields and at 9 wavelengths on each detector by changing each parameter slightly. A full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the PSF is derived at each field and wavelength position as a function of the perturbation of each optical parameter. Assuming a mount system of each optical element and an error of each optical parameter, we estimate spatial and spectral resolutions by taking installation and fabrication errors into account. The results of the sensitivity analysis suggest that budgets of the total of optical design and the assembly errors account for 15% and 5.8% of our budgets of the spatial resolution in the long wavelength and short wavelength bands, respectively. On the other hand, the grating fabrication errors give a large degradation of spatial and spectral resolutions, and investigations of compensators are needed to relax the fabrication tolerance of the grating surface parameters.
The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket experiment demonstrates the technique of focusing hard X-ray (HXR) optics for the study of fundamental questions about the high-energy Sun. Solar HXRs provide one of the most direct diagnostics of accelerated electrons and the impulsive heating of the solar corona. Previous solar missions have been limited in sensitivity and dynamic range by the use of indirect imaging, but technological advances now make direct focusing accessible in the HXR regime, and the FOXSI rocket experiment optimizes HXR focusing telescopes for the unique scientific requirements of the Sun. FOXSI has completed three successful flights between 2012 and 2018. This paper gives a brief overview of the experiment, focusing on the third flight of the instrument on 2018 Sept. 7. We present the telescope upgrades highlighting our work to understand and reduce the effects of singly reflected X-rays and show early science results obtained during FOXSI's third flight.
The Solar-C_EUVST is a mission designed to provide high-quality solar spectroscopic data covering a wide temperature range of the chromosphere to flaring corona. To fulfill a high throughput requirement, the instrument consists of only two optical components; a 28-cm primary mirror and a segmented toroidal grating which have high reflective coatings in EUV-UV range. We present a mission payload structural design which accommodates long focal length optical components and a launcher condition/launch environment (JAXA Epsilon). We also present a mechanical design of primary mirror assembly which enables slit-scan observations, an image stabilizing tip-tilt control, and a focus adjustment on orbit, together with an optomechanical design of the primary mirror and its supporting system which gives optically tolerant wavefront error against a large temperature increase due to an absorption of visible and IR lights.
Solar-C EUVST (EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope) is a solar physics mission concept that was selected as a candidate for JAXA competitive M-class missions in July 2018. The onboard science instrument, EUVST, is an EUV spectrometer with slit-jaw imaging system that will simultaneously observe the solar atmosphere from the photosphere/chromosphere up to the corona with seamless temperature coverage, high spatial resolution, and high throughput for the first time. The mission is designed to provide a conclusive answer to the most fundamental questions in solar physics: how fundamental processes lead to the formation of the solar atmosphere and the solar wind, and how the solar atmosphere becomes unstable, releasing the energy that drives solar flares and eruptions. The entire instrument structure and the primary mirror assembly with scanning and tip-tilt fine pointing capability for the EUVST are being developed in Japan, with spectrograph and slit-jaw imaging hardware and science contributions from US and European countries. The mission will be launched and installed in a sun-synchronous polar orbit by a JAXA Epsilon vehicle in 2025. ISAS/JAXA coordinates the conceptual study activities during the current mission definition phase in collaboration with NAOJ and other universities. The team is currently working towards the JAXA final down-selection expected at the end of 2019, with strong support from US and European colleagues. The paper provides an overall description of the mission concept, key technologies, and the latest status.
The main characteristics of Solar-C_EUVST are the high temporal and high spatial resolutions over a wide temperature coverage. In order to realize the instrument for meeting these scientific requirements under size constraints given by the JAXA Epsilon vehicle, we examined four-dimensional optical parameter space of possible solutions of geometrical optical parameters such as mirror diameter, focal length, grating magnification, and so on. As a result, we have identified the solution space that meets the EUVST science objectives and rocket envelope requirements. A single solution was selected and used to define the initial optical parameters for the concept study of the baseline architecture for defining the mission concept. For this solution, we optimized the grating and geometrical parameters by ray tracing of the Zemax software. Consequently, we found an optics system that fulfills the requirement for a 0.4” angular resolution over a field of view of 100" (including margins) covering spectral ranges of 170-215, 463-542, 557-637, 690-850, 925-1085, and 1115-1275 A. This design achieves an effective area 10 times larger than the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer onboard the Hinode satellite, and will provide seamless observations of 4.2-7.2 log(K) plasmas for the first time. Tolerance analyses were performed based on the optical design, and the moving range and step resolution of focus mechanisms were identified. In the presentation, we describe the derivation of the solution space, optimization of the optical parameters, and show the results of ray tracing and tolerance analyses.
The imaging spectroscopic observations for solar soft X-rays are expected to provide us novel and valuable information about the plasma activity in the solar corona, e.g., particle acceleration, heating, shock, etc. However, this type of observations has not been performed yet with enough energy, spatial, and temporal resolutions. In this situation, we plan to realize the imaging spectroscopic observations for solar soft X-rays with a high speed soft X-ray camera and grazing incidence mirrors. Our developing camera consists of a back-illuminated CMOS sensor. This censor has a sensitivity to soft X-rays (0.5 keV - 10 keV), and can perform continuous exposures of 1,000 frame per second for the imaging area of 1k x 100 pixels. We will mount this camera on the FOXSI-3 sounding rocket that is planned to be launched in the summer of 2018. By the combination of our camera and the X-ray mirror on the FOXSI, we can achieve an energy resolution of 0.2 keV, a spatial resolution of ~5 arcsec (1 arcsec sampling), and the temporal resolution of ~10 seconds in an energy range of 0.5 keV - 10 keV. In this presentation, we will explain the science goal, the instrumental design, and the developments of the solar soft X-ray imaging spectrometer.
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