Solar Variability and Climate: The Balloon-Borne Solar Disk Sextant

该项目将研究太阳直径在不同的 方向。 SDS过去的一系列气球飞行 证明了它有能力测量太阳直径， 给定方向14毫弧秒时的精度（均方根残差） 进行单独测量。 在目前的配置中， 大约每秒5次测量。 设计特点 最新版本的仪器确保了同样的精度 将保留在不同的方向，并从一年到一年。 这些飞行的主要目的是获得 直径和光度变化之间的关系。 当 结合历史直径数据，该关系将允许 的大小（或至少是上限）的确定 太阳的光度在过去的三个世纪里一直在变化。 这些信息将提供给气候建模者，以便 阐明太阳变化对气候变化的影响。 一 该项目的第二个目标是获得高精度 每次飞行的太阳扁率值，从而测试 它是否会随着时间的推移而变化，就像最近其他人所说的那样， 研究人员 该提案的五年期限有两个目的。 第一、 这些飞行加上最近进行的飞行， 将覆盖太阳活动周期的一半以上，因此提供了一个 有意义的变异性检验。 第二，根据目前 根据计划，EUDOSSO实验（SDS的衍生物）应该能够飞行 1997年欧空局的EURECA 3使命。 目前的结果将 为EUDOSSO提供宝贵的数据库， 将允许结果的相互校准。 # //

This project will examine the solar diameter at different orientations. A series of past balloon flights of the SDS have demonstrated its ability to measure solar diameters with a precision (rms residuals) at a given orientation of 14 milli arc s for individual measurements. In the present configuration we make approximately 5 measurements per second. Design features of the latest version of the instrument insure that this same precision will be retained at different orientations, and from year to year. The primary objective of these flights is to obtain the relationship between diameter and luminosity changes. When combined with historical diameter data, the relationship will allow the determination of the magnitude (or, at least, upper limits) of the solar luminosity changes for nearly the past three centuries. This information will be provided to climate modelers in order to elucidate the effect of solar variability on climate change. A secondary objective of this project is to obtain a high precision value of the solar oblateness for each flight, and thus test whether it changes with time as recently suggested by other researchers. The five year term of the proposal has two purposes. First, these flights, when combined with the flight recently carried out, will cover over half of a solar activity cycle, and thus provide a meaningful test for variability. Second, according to current plans, the EUDOSSO experiment (a derivative of the SDS) should fly on the ESA mission EURECA 3 in 1997. The present results will provide an invaluable data base for EUDOSSO, and one flight overlap will allow an intercalibration of the results. # //