Groundbreaking Achievement: NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Produces its First Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun’s Corona

Credit: Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA. Background image: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

The NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope presents its first map of the solar coronal magnetic field signals as measured using the Zeeman Effect. The Zeeman Effect polarizes the coronal emission, which requires the advancements of the Inouye Solar Telescope to measure as its signals are only a few parts per billion of the Sun’s surface brightness. The background image identifies the region observed in detail by Inouye as imaged by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in ultraviolet light.

« Groundbreaking Achievement: NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Produces its First Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun’s Corona

Credit: Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA

The NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope presents its first map of the solar coronal magnetic field signals as measured using the Zeeman Effect. The Zeeman Effect polarizes the coronal emission, which requires the advancements of the Inouye Solar Telescope to measure as the signals are only a few parts per billion of the Sun’s surface brightness.

« Groundbreaking Achievement: NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Produces its First Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun’s Corona

Credit: Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA

The NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope was designed to pave the way for solar coronal magnetometry, the ability to study and measure the magnetic properties of the Sun’s corona. Mapping the corona magnetic fields is an essential function to better understanding the corona and how it drives space weather.

« Groundbreaking Achievement: NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Produces its First Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun’s Corona

Credit: Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA

The NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope’s Cryo-NIRSP instrument charted the telescope’s first coronal magnetic field maps. Cryo-NIRSP operates in the near-infrared to reveal the faint corona. It maintains a cryogenically cooled environment to achieve the high sensitivity, precision, and stability required for advanced observations of the corona. (Designed and built by the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy).

« Groundbreaking Achievement: NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Produces its First Magnetic Field Maps of the Sun’s Corona

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