000003460 001__ 3460
000003460 005__ 20180129161153.0
000003460 037__ $$aPOSTER-2018-0032
000003460 100__ $$aCaspi, Amir
000003460 245__ $$aFirst results from the NASA WB-57 airborne observations of the Great American 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
000003460 260__ $$c2017
000003460 269__ $$c2017-08-23
000003460 520__ $$aTotal solar eclipses present rare opportunities to study the complex solar corona, down to altitudes of just a few percent of a solar radius above the surface, using ground-based and airborne observatories that would otherwise be dominated by the intense solar disk and high sky brightness. Studying the corona is critical to gaining a better understanding of physical processes that occur on other stars and astrophysical objects, as well as understanding the dominant driver of space weather that affects human assets at Earth and elsewhere. For example, it is still poorly understood how the corona is heated to temperatures of 1-2 MK globally and up to 5-10 MK above active regions, while the underlying chromosphere is 100 times cooler; numerous theories abound, but are difficult to constrain due to the limited sensitivities and cadences of prior measurements. The origins and stability of coronal fans, and the extent of their reach to the middle and outer corona, are also not well known, limited in large part by sensitivities and fields of view of existing observations. Airborne observations during the eclipse provide unique advantages; by flying in the stratosphere at altitudes of 50 kft or higher, they avoid all weather, the seeing quality is enormously improved, and additional wavelengths such as near-IR also become available due to significantly reduced water absorption. For an eclipse, an airborne observatory can also follow the shadow, increasing the total observing time by 50% or more. We present the first results from airborne observations of the 2017 Great American Total Solar Eclipse using two of NASA's WB-57 research aircraft, each equipped with two 8.7" telescopes feeding high-sensitivity visible (green-line) and near-IR (3-5 μm) cameras operating at high cadence (30 Hz) with ~3 arcsec/pixel platescale and ±3 R_sun fields of view. The aircraft will fly along the eclipse path, separated by ~90 km, to observe a summed ~8 minutes of totality in both visible and NIR, enabling groundbreaking studies of high-speed wave motions and nanojets in the lower corona, the structure and extent of coronal fans, and constraints on a potential primordial dust ring around the Sun.
000003460 536__ $$a3ESA_PROBA2SOC/$$c3ESA_PROBA2SOC/$$f3ESA_PROBA2SOC
000003460 594__ $$aNO
000003460 700__ $$aTsang, Constantine
000003460 700__ $$aDeForest, Craig
000003460 700__ $$aSeaton, Daniel B.
000003460 700__ $$aBryans, Paul
000003460 700__ $$aTomczyk, Steven
000003460 700__ $$aBurkepile, Joan
000003460 700__ $$aJudge, Phil
000003460 700__ $$aDeLuca, Edward E
000003460 700__ $$aGolub, Leon
000003460 700__ $$aGallagher, Peter T
000003460 700__ $$aZhukov, Andrei
000003460 700__ $$aWest, Matthew
000003460 700__ $$aDurda, Daniel D.
000003460 700__ $$aSteffl, Andrew J.
000003460 773__ $$tAmerican Astronomical Society, SPD meeting #48, Portland, USA
000003460 8560_ $$fmatthew.west@observatoire.be
000003460 85642 $$ahttp://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017SPD....4810701C
000003460 980__ $$aCPOSTER