The Solar Orbiter SPICE instrument

Consortium, The SPICE; :,; Anderson, Mark R.; Appourchaux, T.; Auchère, F.; Cuadrado, R. Aznar; Barbay, J.; Baudin, F.; Beardsley, S.; Bocchialini, K.; Borgo, Bruno; Bruzzi, D.; Buchlin, É.; Burton, G.; Blüchel, V.; Caldwell, M.; Caminade, Stéphane; Carlsson, Mats; Curdt, W.; Davenne, J.; Davila, J. M.; DeForest, C. E.; Zanna, G. Del; Drummond, D.; Dubau, J.; Dumesnil, C.; Dunn, G.; Eccleston, Paul; Fludra, A.; Fredvik, T.; Gabriel, A. H.; Giunta, A.; Gottwald, Alexander; Griffin, Douglas; Grundy, T.; Guest, Steve; Gyo, Manfred; Haberreiter, M.; Hansteen, V. H.; Harrison, R. A.; Hassler, Donald M.; Haugan, S. V. H.; Howe, C.; Janvier, Miho; Klein, R.; Koller, Silvio; Kucera, T. A.; Kouliche, D.; Marsch, E.; Marshall, A.; Marshall, G. M.; Matthews, Sarah; McQuirk, C.; Meining, Stefan; Mercier, C.; Morris, Nigel; Morse, T.; Munro, G.; Parenti, S.; Sempere, Carmen Pastor; Peter, Hardi; Pfiffner, Daniel; Phelan, Patrick T.; Philippon, Anne; Richards, A. G.; Rogers, Kevin; Sawyer, C.; Schlatter, P.; Schmutz, W.; Schühle, U.; Shaughnessy, Bryan; Sidher, S.; Solanki, S. K.; Speight, Roisin; Spescha, Marcel; Szwec, N.; Tamiatto, C.; Teriaca, L.; Thompson, W. T.; Tosh, Ian; Tustain, Samuel; Vial, J. C.; Walls, B.; Waltham, Nick; Wimmer‐Schweingruber, R. F.; Woodward, S.; Young, Peter R.; Groof, A. De; Pacros, A.; Williams, David R.; Müller, D.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201935574

Cited by 108 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument onboard Solar Orbiter will observe a range of ultraviolet lines, the strongest being O VI 1031.9 Å with an estimated 8000 photons pixel −1 s −1 in an AR (Anderson et al 2020). This would allow confirmation that brightening events from plage regions can account for the heating of the corona.…”

Section: Discussion a N D S U M M A Rymentioning

confidence: 99%

Power-law energy distributions of small-scale impulsive events on the active Sun: results from IRIS

Vilangot

Nelson

Mathioudakis

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Numerous studies have analysed inferred power-law distributions between frequency and energy of impulsive events in the outer solar atmosphere in an attempt to understand the predominant energy supply mechanism in the corona. Here, we apply a burst detection algorithm to high-resolution imaging data obtained by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph to further investigate the derived power-law index, γ, of bright impulsive events in the transition region. Applying the algorithm with a constant minimum event lifetime (of either 60 s or 110 s) indicated that the target under investigation, such as Plage and Sunspot, has an influence on the observed power-law index. For regions dominated by sunspots, we always find γ < 2; however, for datasets where the target is a plage region, we often find that γ > 2 in the energy range [∼1023, ∼1026] erg. Applying the algorithm with a minimum event lifetime of three timesteps indicated that cadence was another important factor, with the highest cadence datasets returning γ > 2 values. The estimated total radiative power obtained for the observed energy distributions is typically 10 – 25% of what would be required to sustain the corona indicating that impulsive events in this energy range are not sufficient to solve coronal heating. If we were to extend the power-law distribution down to an energy of 1021 erg, and assume parity between radiative energy release and the deposition of thermal energy, then such bursts could provide 25 – 50% of the required energy to account for the coronal heating problem.

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Section: Discussion a N D S U M M A Rymentioning

confidence: 99%

Power-law energy distributions of small-scale impulsive events on the active Sun: results from IRIS

Vilangot

Nelson

Mathioudakis

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Fe XXI was also observed earlier by SMM/UVSP. The Fe XVIII 974 Å is another strong line, which was observed by SUMER (see e.g., Teriaca et al, 2012b), and is available to Solar Orbiter SPICE (Anderson et al, 2019). However, as we have mentioned, Fe XVIII has a significant contribution from 3 to 4 MK emission and so its use for measuring high temperatures by itself is limited.…”

Section: Uvmentioning

confidence: 93%

High Resolution Soft X-ray Spectroscopy and the Quest for the Hot (5–10 MK) Plasma in Solar Active Regions

Zanna

Andretta

Cargill

et al. 2021

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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We discuss the diagnostics available to study the 5–10 MK plasma in the solar corona, which is key to understanding the heating in the cores of solar active regions. We present several simulated spectra, and show that excellent diagnostics are available in the soft X-rays, around 100 Å, as six ionization stages of Fe can simultaneously be observed, and electron densities derived, within a narrow spectral region. As this spectral range is almost unexplored, we present an analysis of available and simulated spectra, to compare the hot emission with the cooler component. We adopt recently designed multilayers to present estimates of count rates in the hot lines, with a baseline spectrometer design. Excellent count rates are found, opening up the exciting opportunity to obtain high-resolution spectroscopy of hot plasma.

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“…Thus, SO/PHI will supply the magnetic and dynamic boundary conditions for the plasma processes observed in the higher layers of the solar atmosphere by the EUI, SPICE, Metis and STIX instruments (Rochus et al 2019;SPICE Consortium et al et al 2019;Antonucci et al 2019;Krucker 2019) on board Solar Orbiter and in the inner heliosphere by SoloHI ). In addition, such plasma processes will be measured in situ by EPD, SWA, MAG and RPW (Rodríguez-Pacheco et al 2019;Owen 2019;Horbury 2019;Maksimovic et al 2019) In addition, studies of the dynamical connections between the solar interior and the atmosphere will benefit from the subsurface flows derived from local helioseismology with SO/PHI (Duvall et al 1993;Gizon & Birch 2005).…”

Section: Is a Small-scale Turbulent Dynamo Process Acting On The Sun?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on Solar Orbiter

Solanki

Iniesta

Woch

et al. 2020

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Aims. This paper describes the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on the Solar Orbiter mission (SO/PHI), the first magnetograph and helioseismology instrument to observe the Sun from outside the Sun-Earth line. It is the key instrument meant to address the top-level science question: How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere? SO/PHI will also play an important role in answering the other top-level science questions of Solar Orbiter, as well as hosting the potential of a rich return in further science. Methods. SO/PHI measures the Zeeman effect and the Doppler shift in the Fe i 617.3 nm spectral line. To this end, the instrument carries out narrow-band imaging spectro-polarimetry using a tunable LiNbO 3 Fabry-Perot etalon, while the polarisation modulation is done with liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVRs). The line and the nearby continuum are sampled at six wavelength points and the data are recorded by a 2k × 2k CMOS detector. To save valuable telemetry, the raw data are reduced on board, including being inverted under the assumption of a Milne-Eddington atmosphere, although simpler reduction methods are also available on board. SO/PHI is composed of two telescopes; one, the Full Disc Telescope (FDT), covers the full solar disc at all phases of the orbit, while the other, the High Resolution Telescope (HRT), can resolve structures as small as 200 km on the Sun at closest perihelion. The high heat load generated through proximity to the Sun is greatly reduced by the multilayer-coated entrance windows to the two telescopes that allow less than 4% of the total sunlight to enter the instrument, most of it in a narrow wavelength band around the chosen spectral line. Results. SO/PHI was designed and built by a consortium having partners in Germany, Spain, and France. The flight model was delivered to Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, and successfully integrated into the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. A number of innovations were introduced compared with earlier space-based spectropolarimeters, thus allowing SO/PHI to fit into the tight mass, volume, power and telemetry budgets provided by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft and to meet the (e.g. thermal) challenges posed by the mission's highly elliptical orbit.

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The Solar Orbiter SPICE instrument

Cited by 108 publications

References 29 publications

Power-law energy distributions of small-scale impulsive events on the active Sun: results from IRIS

Power-law energy distributions of small-scale impulsive events on the active Sun: results from IRIS

High Resolution Soft X-ray Spectroscopy and the Quest for the Hot (5–10 MK) Plasma in Solar Active Regions

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on Solar Orbiter

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