Thanks to the recent modernization of the “Big Bear” Solar Observatory (BBSO), which is already the most accurate in the world, designed to observe the Sun, astronomers can now get the most detailed images of our star in real time.
New features will greatly simplify the work of researchers and will significantly expand the range of observations of solar activity in real time. For example, now scientists will be able to understand better the specifics of high-energy phenomena, such as, for example, solar storms, which can have a serious impact on our space satellites and communication technologies.
“For the concept of the fundamental dynamics of our Sun, like the nature of solar storms, we need to collect as much information as possible from as large points of view as possible. For example, at the time of large flares in many places at the same time there are major changes in the magnetic field. It’s very difficult to track everything at once, ”says physicist Philip Good of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
To obtain a broader perspective on such events, the Hood team, as well as researchers from the US National Solar Observatory and the German Kipenheuer Institute of Solar Physics, have been working on multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) technology for over a decade.
An example of a new technology. On the left - the image is obtained using conventional adaptive optics. Right - multiadaptive
The basis of the MCAO device is three mirror-changing shapes capable of correcting the distortion of light waves caused by the Earth’s atmosphere. When light from the Sun enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it encounters turbulent air currents that can “cloud” our observations. A similar phenomenon can be observed, for example, on a hot day on the road. If you look into the distance, it starts to seem like it is “floating”. This effect is caused by air masses in the process of mixing different temperatures, which distort the light waves that seep through the atmosphere. For the same reason, for example, when viewed with the naked eye on the stars, it seems to us that they flicker. The bottom line is that this effect cannot be compensated with conventional telescopes.
However, MCAO can “circumvent” this effect thanks to its three mirrors, which are controlled by extremely high-precision and fast cameras, shooting at 2000 frames per second. Each of these three mirrors catches light at different levels of the earth's atmosphere: at the ground level, at an altitude of 4.8 kilometers, and at an altitude of 9.7 kilometers. Due to simultaneous image analysis, the system is able to effectively correct the results of distortion, provide a view of solar activity in real time and at the same time three times wider viewing angle than before.
In other words, astronomers now have the opportunity to follow in real time such things as sunspots in the photosphere of the Sun, stretching up to 32,000 kilometers. Previously, without distortions, we could observe such phenomena only a la carte, that is, partially, and not as a general picture. New opportunities, in turn, will allow us to understand how vulnerable we are in the face of catastrophic geomagnetic storms that can literally burn out our entire electromagnetic network and telecommunications systems for years, not to mention the more dire consequences.
“Only by simultaneously observing the overall emission pattern can we accurately measure the size, power, duration, and danger of these magnetic phenomena,” Goode comments.
“We could now also analyze and study the forces that drive and force the magnetic fields to circle around each other before they collapse and emit a huge amount of radiation and particles, which, in the case of direction towards the Earth, can turn out to be catastrophic space weather phenomena.
The article is based on materials .
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