FRANCESCA ZUCCARELLO and the EST & SOLARNET TEAMS
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

Today : several national European solar facilities on Tenerife and La Palma
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014
EST
A large aperture 4-meter telescope to be built in the Canary Islands
EST is promoted by EAST
European Association for Solar
Telescopes: a consortium formed by institutions from 15 European countries with the aim , among others, of undertaking the development of the European
Solar Telescope , to keep Europe on the front line of Solar Physics.
Countries represented in EAST

ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014
Countries represented in EAST
Countries directly involved in the EST
Design Phase
Budget: 6.7 M €
FP-7 EC funding: 3.2 M €
1 Feb 2008 - 30 June 2011
Project Coordinator: M.
Collados (IAC)
29 partners plus 9 collaborating institutions

• How does the magnetic field evolve and emerge to the surface ?
• How is energy transported from the photosphere to the chromosphere ?
• How is the energy released deposited in the upper atmosphere ?
• Why does the Sun have a hot chromosphere and a hot corona ?
• What causes the explosive events (flares, filament eruptions,
CMEs) ?
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

• EST must specialise in simultaneous spectropolarimetry of the photosphere and the chromosphere
• Must have superb optical quality , with very high throughput
• Must have integrated high-order AO and MCAO
• Must have spectrograph capabilities from blue to near-IR
(with several simultaneous spectral regions)
• Must have narrow-band tunable filtergraphs from blue to near-IR, simultaneously accessible
• Must have complementary imaging channels to observe photospheric and chromospheric layers (GBand, Hα,…)
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

• 4-meter diameter
• On-axis Gregorian configuration
• Alt-Az mount
• Simultaneous instrument stations (each with several wavelength channels)
- Broad-band imager
- Narrow-band tunable imager
- Grating spectrograph
• MCAO integrated in the optical path
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

• Diameter of the primary mirror: 4070 mm
• Diameter of the secondary mirror: 800 mm
• Spatial resolution on the solar disk: 30 km (goal 20 km)

Beam from telescope
NB1 (390-550 nm)
NB3
(700-900 nm)
RED
D3
10-90
BLUE
GREEN-RED
D2
10-
90
25/75
30-70
BB1 CaII core
VIS
D1
NIR
75-25
NB2 (550-700 nm) D4
Upper floor
NBNIR 1
(700-900 nm)
NBNIR2
900-1100 nm)
Lower floor
SPvis
SPNIR
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Dublin 8-12 September 2014

Coordinator institution :
IAC
Integrated
Infrastructure Initiative
(I3)
INFRA-2012-1.1.26
Research Infrastructures for
High-Resolution Solar Physics
Grant Agreement no. 312495
Purpose:
I3 combine in this call
1) Networking activities,
2) TransNational and Services activities
3) Joint Research activities.

SOLARNET : AIMS
• Integrating the major European infrastructures in the field of highresolution solar physics
• Realise Trans-national Access to external European users
• Enhance and spread data acquisition and processing expertise to the
Europe-wide community
• Increase the impact of high-resolution data by offering science-ready data and facilitating their retrieval and usage
• Encourage combination of space and ground-based data by providing unified access to pertinent data repositories

 Pipelines
• GREGOR:
GFPI, GRIS,BLISS
• SST: CRISP, TRIPPEL, CHROMIS
• THEMIS: MTR, TUNIS
• VTT: TESOS, LARS
• DST:
IBIS, ROSA
 Data Compression
 Image Restoration
 Solar Virtual Observatory (SVO)
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

SOLARNET : AIMS
• Foster synergies between different research communities by organising meetings where each presents state-ofthe-art methodologies
• Train a new generation of solar researchers through setting up schools and a mobility programme
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

SOLARNET : AIMS
• Develop prototypes for new-generation post-focus instruments
• Study local and non-local atmospheric turbulence, their impact on image quality, and ways to negate their effects
• Improve designs of future large European ground-and spacebased solar telescopes

Four instruments to be developed:
1. Large diameter Etalon Development
(100 – 300 mm)
Several layouts are explored
1. Image slicer for 2D spectroscopy
Design developed for EST has been adapted for GRIS@GREGOR
1. Microlens-fed spectrograph must be adapted and optimized for polarimetric measurements
2. Fast Imaging Polarimeter based on fast, low-noise pnCCD sensor
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

• Adaptive Optics (AO)
• Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO)
Simulations and Tests
• Implementation of an AO prototype for THEMIS
• Development of an innovative heat rejecter prototype for GREGOR
• Atmospheric Seeing Characterization
•Application of CFD techniques for local seeing optimization
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

4 working groups:
 Synoptic magnetic fields
 Solar seismology
 Transient events
 Solar awareness
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Dublin 8-12 September 2014

Ground-based telescopes :
Wavelength range limited by Earth atmosphere absorption
Radio observations (useful for instance to investigate flares/CMEs properties) not at the same resolution as optical observations (future:
ALMA)
Acquisition time interval severely limited by changes in seeing conditions
Day/night constraints
Higher angular resolution
Possibility to repair, upgrade instruments
Change of the target in real time
Unique observations in the Hα line (patrol observations, but too low spatial resolution)
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

Satellite Instruments :
Telemetry and data transfer limitation
Effects of energetic particles emitted during solar explosive events
Instruments: it is not possible to upgrade or repair
Lost of satellite control (see, e.g. SOHO)
Limited time interval of satellite observations (10 - 15 y ?)
Public release data
Pipelines (for instance, Solar Software) almost immediately available
Well organized data archives and repository
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014

 EST and ATST-DKIST have the advantage of much higher data return, but are limited to their vantage points on the Sun-Earth line.
 Depending on the orbital configuration, significant synergy can be achieved by combining Solar Orbiter ’s remote-sensing data with either high-resolution and/or high-cadence co-spatial data from other observatories that provide additional spatial coverage
 Authors who use high resolution GB data very often “like” to put them in a wider context and therefore use also Sat data
 The opposite occurs less often (probably because an accessible archive does not yet exists or because the pipelines are not always available, but remember the SOLARNET goals and the work going on !!
)

Coordinated Observational Campaigns: A Challenge
- Till now the target must be selected two days in advance: will it be possible to shorten this time interval ?
- How about having the same time cadence in data acquisition ?
- Flares issue

• The EST project is promoted by EAST (European Association for Solar Telescopes)
• The Design Phase has been financed by EC (29 partners: 14 scientific institutions and 15 industries)
• A new budget has been allocated to the EST-EAST community by EU: SOLARNET
• Synergies with ATST-DKIST, Solar Orbiter and other GB and Sat facilities are necessary in order to achieve a better knowledge of the Sun.
EST website: http://www.iac.es/proyecto/EST
SOLARNET website:
ESPM 14
Dublin 8-12 September 2014