Shestov, S V ; Zhukov, A N ; Inhester, B ; Dolla, L ; Mierla, M

published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 652, pp. A4 (2021)

Abstract: Context. The Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) is a novel externally occulted solar coronagraph that will be launched on board the Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA-3) mission in 2023. The external occulter will be placed on the first satellite ∼150 m ahead of the second satellite, which will carry an optical instrument. During 6 hours per orbit, the satellites will fly in a precise formation and will constitute a giant externally occulted coronagraph. The large distance between the external occulter and the primary objective will allow observations of the white-light solar corona starting from extremely low heights of ∼1.1 R ⊙ .

Keyword(s): Sun: corona ; instrumentation: high angular resolution ; telescopes ; methods: numerical
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202140467
Links: link
Funding: 3PRODPROBA3/3PRODPROBA3/3PRODPROBA3