Facilities and Collaborative Instrumentation - Overview

Our Philosophy:

Build reliable, State-of-the-Art instruments which deliver consistent, high-quality data for the worldwide solar-terrestrial community

Our Goals:

Leverage resources/collaborations

Build instrumentation that is integral to facilities

Build instruments that work reliably

Maintain instrument integrity and data quality

Direct Facility Support
HAO manages and operates a synoptic solar observing facility at MLSO. Responsibilities include all aspects of data collection, quality control and data distribution.

Independent Research
HAO conducts independent research and collaborations with other institutions using data from MLSO, NSF-sponsored facilities (National Solar Observatory) and UCAR equipment operated throughout the world by others in the solar community.

User Support
HAO provides an integral service to world-class solar-terrestrial observing facilities through instrumentation, maintenance, consulting and data distribution.

Cyberinfrastructure Support HAO supports field projects through databases (CEDAR) and the development of the virtual solar-terrestrial observatory (VSTO).

HAO User-Based Facilities

Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO), Hawaii

Instruments:

ACOS (Advanced Coronal Observing System):
     - Mk IV (White Light K-Coronameter)
     - CHIP (Chromospheric Helium Imaging Photometer)
     - PICS (H-alpha Prominence and Disk Monitor)

PSPT (Precision Solar Photometric Telescope)

ECHO (Experiment for Coordinated Helioseismic Observations)

GONG (Global Oscillation Network Group)

Staff:

3 HAO Associate Scientists

Role:

Manage and operate MLSO. Record synoptic data from solar observations and transmit to HAO for analysis. GONG: Maintain one of six observing stations

Users:

HAO and over 312 multi-national users of the solar community (including universities, government labs and private industry)

Present Status:

Operated 10 hours/day, 7 days/week, approximately 363 days/year

More Information: http://mlso.hao.ucar.edu

National Solar Observatory (NSO), New Mexico

Instruments:

CoMP (Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter)

SPINOR (Spectro-polarimeter for Infrared & Optical Regions)

ASP (Advanced Stokes Polarimeter)

DLSP (Defraction Limited Spectro-polarimeter)

Staff:

NSO with occasional HAO support during observing campaigns

Role:

Collaborative effort in the design of instruments, support operations through troubleshooting and maintenance.

Users:

HAO, NSO as well as other members of the solar community

Present Status:

CoMP is currently nearing the end of engineering phase SPINOR is currently in engineering phase with projected fully functional user instrument in FY06 ASP and DLSP: time-allocated user instruments ATST to be deployed in 2012

More Information: www.nso.edu

Polar Cap Observatory (PCO), Canada

Instruments:

Fabry-Perot Interferometer

All-Sky camera

Staff:

Remotely operated

Role:

Support future Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) operation at Resolute to study the interaction between the magnetosphere and ionosphere and the coupling between the thermosphere and ionosphere inside the polar cap.

Users:

HAO and the upper atmospheric community

Present Status:

Operates during winter season

More Information:

http://isr.sri.com/iono/epco/epco.html
http://isr.sri.com/iono/amisr/

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Canary Islands

Instruments:

STARE (Stellar Astrophysics & Research on Exoplanets)

ECHO (Experiment for Coordinated Helioseismic Observations)

POLIS (Polarimetric Littrow Spectrograph)

ChroTel (Chromospheric Telescope)

Staff:

IAC and KIS with occasional HAO support during observing campaigns

Role:

Collaborative effort in the design of instruments, support operations through troubleshooting and maintenance. HAO responsible for the processing of ECHO data.

Users:

HAO, IAC and KIS as well as members of the Solar community

Present Status:

ChroTel to be deployed in FY06, all other instruments currently operational

More Information:

IAC: www.iac.es
KIS: www.kis.uni-freiburg.de
SST: www.solarphysics.kva.se
STARE: STARE

HAO Collaborative Instrumentation

Lockheed Martin Missile Systems (LMMS), California

Instruments:

FPP SP (Focal Plane Package Spectropolarimeter)

HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager)

Role:

Work with Lockheed Martin, Stanford, NASA and NAOJ to design and test unique instrumentation. HAO responsible for calibration techniques and aiding in the analysis of data.

Users:

HAO, NAOJ, LMMS as well as others in the solar community

Present Status:

FPP SP: Launch in 2006 on SolarB Satellite; operational for a minimum of 3 years
HMI: Launch in 2007 on the Solar Dynamic Observatory Satellite

More Information:

NAOJ: www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/www_solar/solarB/index.html
Stanford: http://hmi.stanford.edu/
Lockheed Martin: http://fpp.lmsal.com/

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Spain
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPS), Germany
Kiepenheuer-Institut for Solar Physics (KIS), Germany

Instruments:

Sunrise (Solar Magnetic Field Study)

Role:

HAO/ATD supplying the pointing platform Part of integration and testing of instrument – Europe Flight support out of U.S. and Antarctica

Users:

HAO, IAC, KIS, MPS and NSO as well as others in the solar community

Present Status:

Test flight FY06; projected science flight 2008 (from Antarctica)

More Information:

MPS: www.mps.mpg.de
IAC: www.iac.es
KIS: www.kis.uni-freiburg.de