Probing the Solar Interior and Atmosphere from the Geographic South Pole

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This grant provides for the continuation of the very productive solar oscillations studies which have been done off and on for many years at South Pole. The telescope will make high resolution (4 arcsecond) images of the full solar disk at two Fraunhofer wavelengths, Hydrogen-alpha and Calcium II K, which come from different heights in the solar atmosphere. The hydrogen line will be analyzed for intensity variations as well as Doppler velocity while the calcium line will be used for intensity variations only. These data will be used to study the interior of the sun by observing the various modes of the exterior vibrations. In particular, studies will focus on the variations of the acoustic oscillations with solar cycle activity, sub-surface structures of magnetic features such as sun spots, the wave properties of the solar atmosphere and the physics of acoustic oscillations with frequencies above 4 mHz. The South Pole is a unique observatory for solar astronomy because only there can one observe the sun for extended periods, such as weeks and months, without diurnal interruptions or variations.