FDP: Full Disk Patrol Telescope
Understanding Our Home Star
Long-term studies of our Sun — the astronomical object most important
to humanity — are essential to understanding the solar activity cycle,
sudden energy releases in the solar atmosphere and solar irradiance
changes and their impacts on Earth.
The FDP produces images of the entire solar disk in continuum
(an approximation of white light) and in colors produced by calcium,
hydrogen, and helium (left to right).
Products: Full-disk digital images of the Sun in select wavelengths as rapidly as every 10
seconds. Earlier NSO instruments typically delivered one image per day on film
in a limited number of wavelengths.
Significance:
Much of the solar activity that affects us is visible in two lower layers of the
solar atmosphere, the photosphere (the “visible surface”) and the chromosphere (the hot layer just above the surface). They exhibit activities such as
sunspots, bright areas called plages, explosive flares, and signatures of violent
mass ejections from the corona. These are tracked in light affected by hydrogen,
helium, and calcium, as well as white light. The FDP produces images every 10
minutes to three hours, depending on wavelength, and makes special images
that show bulk movement in the solar atmosphere once a day. The FDP also
supports special-purpose observations.
Instrument: 14 cm (5.5 in.) refractor telescope; liquid-crystal tunable filters; two
2048 x 2048-pixel CCD cameras.
ISS: Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer
Sample ISS spectrum of the central part of the Ca II K absorption line (intensity
vs. wavelength). The shape of the deepest parts changes in response to varying
solar activity.
Products: Spectra of the Sun as it would appear if the Sun were as distant as other
stars. Previous observations required several different instruments, many of
them outdated, for just a few spectral lines and with considerable personnel
requirements.
Significance:
Each day, ISS records variations exhibited by selected spectral lines averaged
over the solar disk in near-ultraviolet through visible light to near-infrared. The
ISS high spectral resolution reveals key information about conditions in the
solar atmosphere. For example, variations in spectral features related to hot
calcium (the violet Ca II H and K lines) are closely linked to the 11-year sunspot
solar cycle. These are observed as diagnostics of global convective patterns,
velocities in the photosphere (visible surface), and overall magnetic fields.
Instrument: 8 mm (0.3 in.) lens feeding an optical fiber that scrambles
sunlight into an integrated signal; double-pass grating spectrograph;
256 x 1024-pixel CCD camera.
The overarching goal of NISP is to improve our understanding of why
the Sun and similar stars exhibit magnetic activity. NISP probes the Sun
from the deep interior to the chromosphere with a set of instruments
that provide data for use by the scientific community. In addition, NISP
data are being used for Space Weather forecasting; to understand the
solar input to global climate changes; and to support space missions
and other ground-based observations. NISP data will also help us
understand the dynamo mechanism that generates magnetic fields in
planets, stars, and galaxies.
The Solar Science Drivers:
• The 22-year solar activity cycle and the dynamo
• How energy is stored and released in the solar atmosphere
• The causes of variations in solar outputs
NISP Management
Synoptic Program Assc. Director
Program Scientist (Interior)
Program Scientist (Surface)
Instrument Scientist
Program Manager
Data Center Manager
Frank Hill
Kiran Jain
Alexei Pevtsov
Jack Harvey
Kim Streander
Sean McManus
The NSO Integrated Synoptic Program, comprising GONG
and SOLIS instruments, provides long-term synoptic
observations of the Sun to national and international solar
and solar-terrestial physics communities in support of
scientific research and operational forecast applications in
the framework of space weather.
Collaborating Institutions:
• Big Bear Solar Observatory
• Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory
• High Altitude Observatory
• Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
• Learmonth Solar Observatory
• National Aeronautic & Space Administration
• National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Space Weather Prediction Center
• Udaipur Solar Observatory
• US Air Force Weather Agency
NISP is funded by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) through the National Solar Observatory (NSO),
which is operated under a cooperative agreement between the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) and NSF.
National Solar Observatory
950 N. Cherry Ave
P.O. Box 26732
Tucson, AZ  85726-6732
www.nso.edu/nisp
H-alpha image of the Sun taken from the NISP
network site at Big Bear, California, May 2012.
NSO
NISP 6-Site Network
VSM: Vector SpectroMagnetograph
VSM map of magnetic activity
across the entire solar disk.
2228
100
Arcsec
NISP network instruments operate at six worldwide locations with an
approximate 90% duty cycle, enabling continuous measurements of local
and global helioseismic probes from just below the visible surface to
nearly the center of the Sun. The sites comprising the GONG Network
are: Big Bear Solar Observatory in California, High Altitude Observatory at
Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Learmonth Solar Observatory in Western Australia,
Udaipur Solar Observatory in India, Observatorio del Teide in the Canary
Islands, and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile.
150
NISP network data products include full-disk 2.5-arcsec pixel velocity,
intensity, and magnetic-flux images of the Sun every minute (left to right).
High-cadence, high-sensitivity magnetograms, near-real-time seismic
images of the farside of the Sun, and 2K x 2K Hα intensity images obtained
at a 20-second cadence. Global helioseismic mode parameters and local
helioseismic products are also available.
50
-2228
Gauss
0
Calibrated Farside Map
0
50
100
150
Arcsec
200
1000
250
Active Region 10988 2008-3-28T1545
Background: Vert. Field (Gauss); Arrows: Horiz. Field
Products: Full-disk, directional map of the solar magnetic field in 15 minutes,
three times a day. Previous spectromagnetographs produced twodimensional maps that showed average magnetic field strength only
along the line of sight, typically once a day.
VSM, FDP, and ISS installed atop the Vacuum Tower at Kitt Peak, Arizona,
southwest of Tucson.
Seismic images of magnetic activitiy on the farside of the Sun that cannot
directly be seen from Earth. The images show sound wave travel time
variations, with locations of shorter travel times appearing darker. These
darker regions indicate locations where there is an accumulation of
magnetic field on the far surface. The left-hand portion of the image
shows the farside, which contains an area that has an 84% probability of
being an active region. The right-hand portion of the images shows the
Earthside magnetic field, with two large active regions.
The method for estimating far-side magnetic activity was developed by
Charles Lindsey and Doug Braun of Colorado Research Associates, a
division of Northwest Research Associates, Boulder, Colorado.
Significance:
The 11-year sunspot cycle and other changes in solar activity
are closely linked to solar magnetic fields rooted deep in the
interior of the Sun. Complex gas motions inside the Sun twist
and contort the field. As the fields emerge through the visible
surface, they cause sunspots and other variations that can
affect us on Earth. The VSM maps the strength and direction of
magnetic fields in two lower layers of the solar atmosphere by
analyzing the intensity and polarization of light absorbed by atoms of
iron and calcium.
NISP also operates state-of-the-art instrumentation designed to
operate for at least two sunspot cycles (22+ years). The Vector
Spectromagnetograph (VSM), Full Disk Patrol (FDP), and Integrated
Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS) operate daily as weather permits. Data
products include full-disk line-of-sight photospheric and chromospheric
magnetograms, full vector photospheric magnetograms, full-disk Doppler
and equivalent width “maps” of the Sun in Hα and He 10830, coronal hole
maps, and Sun-as-a-star spectral observations in several spectral bands
spanning the low solar atmosphere.
Instrument: 50 cm (19.7 in.) reflector telescope; movable grating and
a polarization modulator; two 256 x 1024-pixel CCD cameras.
Spectral Range and Principal Lines of Interest
UV
FDP, ISS
Visible light
Near IR
ISS, VSM
NETWORK
FDP, ISS
ISS, VSM
FDP, ISS, VSM
1,100
Helium (He I)
1083
1,000
900
800
Hydrogen (Hα)
Calcium (Ca II infrared triplet)
656.28
849.8, 854.2, 866.2
676.8 Nickel (Ni)
700
nanometers (nm)
600
Iron (Fe I)
630.15, 630.25
500
400
350
~380
Calcium (Ca II, H & K)
393.4, 396.8