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

这个项目将研究不同方位的太阳直径。SDS过去的一系列气球飞行证明了它有能力在给定方向上以14毫弧的精度(均方根残差)测量太阳直径，S用于个人测量。在目前的配置中，我们每秒进行大约5次测量。最新版仪器的设计特点确保了在不同方向和年复一年保持相同的精度。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时，这一关系将允许确定近三个世纪以来太阳光度变化的量级(或至少上限)。这些信息将提供给气候模型师，以阐明太阳变化对气候变化的影响。该项目的第二个目标是获得每一次飞行的太阳扁率的高精确值，从而测试它是否像其他研究人员最近所建议的那样随着时间的变化而变化。该提案的五年任期有两个目的。首先，这些飞行与最近进行的飞行相结合，将覆盖太阳活动周期的一半以上，从而为变异性提供了一个有意义的测试。其次，根据目前的计划，EUDOSSO实验(SDS的衍生产品)应于1997年在欧空局的欧空局任务EURECA 3上飞行。目前的结果将为EUDOSSO提供一个宝贵的数据库，一次飞行重叠将允许对结果进行相互校准。#//

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. # //