Plasma and Fusion Research
Volume 2, S1009 (2007)
Regular Articles
- National Astronomical Observatory/NINS, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
Abstract
The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard Hinode is a 50 cm aperture telescope to observe the sun in visible lights (388-668 nm) for the first time with high and extremely stable spatial resolution from space. The focal plane package of SOT consists of Broad-band Filter Imager which provides the highest spatial resolution images of the solar photosphere, the Narrow-band Filter Imager which takes 2-dimentional Dopplergram and Magnetogram of photosphere and chromosphere in high cadence and with wide field of view, and the Spectro-Polarimeter which takes full Stokes line profiles to provide the highest precision magnetic field maps of the photosphere. The most outstanding characteristics of SOT is its continuous and uniform data quality with the unprecedentedly high precision and high spatial resolution of 0.2-0.3 arcsec. The door of the telescope was deployed on 25th Oct. followed by a successful SOT first light. Initial check-outs of the instrument were conducted and superior performance of SOT was confirmed. SOT is starting the regular observation of the daily target region on the sun and producing excellent scientific data. Overview of the SOT instrument is summarized and initial results are demonstrated.
Keywords
optical telescope, sun, solar atmosphere, magnetic field, polarization, spectroscopy
Full Text
References
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This paper may be cited as follows:
Kiyoshi ICHIMOTO and Hinode/SOT team, Plasma Fusion Res. 2, S1009 (2007).