The almost unexplored frequency window from submillimeter to mid-infrared (mid-IR) may bring new clues about the particle acceleration and transport processes and the atmospheric thermal response ...during solar flares. Because of its technical complexity and the special atmospheric environment needed, observations at these frequencies are very sparse. The High Altitude THz Solar Photometer (HATS) is a full-Sun ground-based telescope designed to observe the continuum from the submillimeter to the mid-IR. It has a 457-mm spherical mirror with the sensor in its primary focus. The sensor is a Golay cell with high sensitivity in a very wide frequency range. The telescope has a polar mount, and a custom-built data acquisition system based on a 32 ksamples per second, 24 bits (72 dB dynamic range), 8 channels analog-to-digital board. Changing only the composition of the low- and band-pass filters in front of the Golay cell, the telescope can be setup to detect very different frequency bands; making the instrument very versatile. In this article we describe the telescope characteristics and its development status. Moreover, we give estimates of the expected fluxes during flares.
Radio and optical observations of the evolution of flare-associated phenomena have shown an initial and rapid burst at 0.4 THz only followed subsequently by a localized chromospheric heating ...producing an H{alpha} brightening with later heating of the whole active region. A major instability occurred several minutes later producing one impulsive burst at microwaves only, associated with an M2.0 GOES X-ray flare that exhibited the main H{alpha} brightening at the same site as the first flash.The possible association between long-enduring time profiles at soft X-rays, microwaves, H{alpha}, and sub-THz wavelengths is discussed. In the decay phase, the H{alpha} movie shows a disrupting magnetic arch structure ejecting dark, presumably chromospheric, material upward. The time sequence of events suggests genuine interdependent and possibly non-thermal instabilities triggering phenomena, with concurrent active region plasma heating and material ejection.
The search for the still unrevealed spectral shape of the mysterious THz solar flare emissions is one of the current most challenging research issues. The concept, fabrication and performance of a ...double THz photometer system, named SOLAR-T, is presented. Its innovative optical setup allows observations of the full solar disk and the detection of small burst transients at the same time. The detecting system was constructed to observe solar flare THz emissions on board of stratospheric balloons. The system has been integrated to data acquisition and telemetry modules for this application. SOLAR-T uses two Golay cell detectors preceded by low-pass filters made of rough surface primary mirrors and membranes, 3 and 7 THz band-pass filters, and choppers. Its photometers can detect small solar bursts (tens of solar flux units) with sub second time resolution. Tests have been conducted to confirm the entire system performance, on ambient and low pressure and temperature conditions. An artificial Sun setup was developed to simulate performance on actual observations. The experiment is planned to be on board of two long-duration stratospheric balloon flights over Antarctica and Russia in 2014–2016.
The GOES X28 flare of 4 November 2003 was the largest ever recorded in its class. It produced the first evidence for two spectrally separated emission components, one at microwaves and the other in ...the THz range of frequencies. We analyzed the pre-flare phase of this large flare, twenty minutes before the onset of the major impulsive burst. This period is characterized by unusual activity in X-rays, sub-THz frequencies, H
α
, and microwaves. The CME onset occurred before the onset of the large burst by about 6 min. It was preceded by pulsations of 3 – 5 s periods at sub-THz frequencies together with X-ray and microwave enhancements. The sub-THz pulsations faded out as impulsive bursts were detected at 100 – 300 keV and 7 GHz, close to the time of the first Hα brightening and the CME onset. The activities detected prior to and at the CME onset were located nearly 2 arcmin south of the following large flare, suggesting they were separate events. This unusual activity brings new clues to understanding the complex energy buildup mechanisms prior to the CME onset, occurring at a distinct location and well before the major flare that exploded afterwards.
Solar observations in the mid-infrared 8 – 14 μm band continuum were carried out with cadence of 5 frames per second, in December 2007. Rapid small heated sources, with a typical duration of the ...order of seconds, were found on the bright plage-like areas around sunspots, in association with relatively weak GOES soft X-ray bursts. This work presents the analysis of fast mid-infrared flashes detected during a GOES B2.0-class event on 10 December 2007, beginning at about 10:40 UT. Rapid brightness temperature enhancements of 0.5 to 2.0 K were detected at the Earth by a microbolometer array, using a telescope with 10.5 cm diameter aperture producing a diffraction-limited photometric beam of 25 arc sec. The minimum detectable temperature change was of 0.1 K. The corresponding fluxes are 30 – 130 solar flux units. At the solar surface the estimated rapid brightenings represented a temperature enhancement of 50 – 150 K.
We present the results of one year of daytime atmosphere transmission measurements obtained at 212 and 405 GHz by a 1.5 m solar radio telescope located at El Leoncito site, 2550 m altitude in ...Argentina Andes. We used three different methods: 1) absolute derivation from strong solar signal at different elevation angles; 2) direct derivation from observed known solar brightness times the antenna coupling factor; and 3) fitting the observed sky emission plots as a function of elevation angle, also known as "tipping." Some differences were found for the transmission determined by the three methods, the most important is that methods 1) and 2) are restricted to smaller values of opacity. Method 1) is restricted to measurements at low elevation angles. Method 2) has the advantage to extend measurements to considerably higher values of attenuation. For the El Leoncito site the correlation of optical depth at 405 and 212 GHz was found (/spl tau//sub 405///spl tau//sub 212/)=4.43, smaller than model predictions (/spl ap/5.0). Measurements at both frequencies obtained for 319 days in one year indicate that 50% of time /spl tau//sub 212/<0.3 (or >74% zenithal transmission) and /spl tau//sub 405/<1.5 (or >22% transmission), with small seasonal dependence compared to other sites. The opacity related precipitable water vapor is smaller compared to model estimates, suggesting an upper atmosphere water vapor depression, characteristic to the region.
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