{"id":8849,"date":"2023-05-09T13:11:56","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8849"},"modified":"2023-05-09T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T17:11:56","slug":"swri-selected-for-phase-a-study-to-develop-next-generation-noaa-coronagraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8849","title":{"rendered":"SwRI Selected for Phase a Study to Develop Next-Generation NOAA Coronagraph"},"content":{"rendered":"
SwRI used internal funding to develop SwSCOR\u2019s three-stage lens system mounted behind a single-pylon external occulter to minimize distortion across the field of view. A polarizer wheel is placed in front of the first lens. The current Phase A study will study options for the external occulter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute for a Phase A study to develop SwRI\u2019s Space Weather Solar Coronagraph (SwSCOR) on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Next Program is charged with providing critical data for its space weather prediction center. SwRI is one of five organizations developing a definition-phase study to produce the next-generation NOAA L1 Series COR instrument to detect and characterize Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs).<\/p>\n

CMEs are huge bursts of coronal plasma threaded with intense magnetic fields ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours. CMEs arriving at Earth can generate geomagnetic storms, which can cause anomalies in and disruptions to modern conveniences such as electronic grids and GPS systems. Coronagraphs are instruments that block out light emitted by the Sun\u2019s surface so that its outer atmosphere, or corona, can be observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwSCOR is a short, externally occulted coronagraph with a novel 1.5-stage occultation scheme that enables darker, wider-field imaging than a single multi-disk occulter alone,\u201d said SwRI\u2019s Dr. Craig DeForest, who is leading the study. \u201cIts Arago spot suppressor redirects the major source of diffracted stray light \u2014 the Arago spot \u2014 formed by the occulter itself. This design enables imaging closer to and\/or farther from the Sun than comparably sized instruments with conventional occultation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stray light is the largest challenge of coronagraph design. Coronal structures a few degrees away from the Sun are a billion times fainter than the Sun itself. Diffraction injects stray light into the optics as sunlight scatters around the occulter in front of the instrument. Multi-disk occulters cut stray light by many orders of magnitude in the current generation of single-stage coronagraphs. Adding more disks yields more occultation but tightens the machining or assembly tolerances.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwRI is investigating several novel occulter designs,\u201d DeForest said. \u201cPreliminary laboratory experiments with our latest prototype indicate a more than 10-fold improvement over similar-geometry multi-disk designs in use today, while improving manufacturability and alignment tolerances.\u201d<\/p>\n

SwRI designed SwSCOR using internal funding, incorporating heritage processes and facilities from the development of the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere mission\u2019s Wide-Field Imager (PUNCH\/WFI). DeForest is the principal investigator of PUNCH, a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission set to launch in 2025, which is designed to better understand how the mass and energy of the Sun\u2019s corona become the solar wind that fills the solar system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prototyped and tested key elements of SwSCOR in SwRI\u2019s stray light cleanroom facility,\u201d DeForest said. \u201cIt will directly measure the 3D trajectory of halo CMEs, eliminating the strongest ambiguity in arrival time forecasting: confusion between wide, slow CMEs and narrow, fast CMEs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute for a Phase A study to develop SwRI\u2019s Space Weather Solar Coronagraph (SwSCOR) on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA\u2019s Space Weather Next Program is charged with providing critical data for its space weather prediction center. SwRI is one of five organizations developing a definition-phase…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":8852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/earimediaprodweb.azurewebsites.net\/Api\/v1\/Multimedia\/b86f9b7d-b3a1-4834-b019-2825ddef4627\/Rendition\/low-res\/Content\/Public","fifu_image_alt":"SwRI Selected for Phase a Study to Develop Next-Generation NOAA Coronagraph","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8851,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions\/8851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}