SH038-02
First Results From SPICE EUV Spectrometer on Solar Orbiter
Monday, 14 December 2020: 05:34
Virtual
Andrzej Fludra1, Martin Caldwell1, Alessandra S Giunta1, Tim Grundy1, Steve Guest2, Sunil Sidher1, F Auchere3, Mats Carlsson4, Don Hassler5, Hardi Peter6, Regina Aznar Cuadrado7, Eric Buchlin3, Stéphane Caminade3, Craig DeForest5, Terje Fredvik4, Louise K Harra8, Miho Janvier3, Therese Ann Kucera9, Sarah Leeks2, Daniel Mueller10, Susanna Parenti11, Werner K Schmutz8, Udo Schühle7, Luca Teriaca7, William T Thompson12, Samuel Tustain2, David Williams13 and Peter R Young9, (1)RAL Space, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom, (2)Science and Technology Facilities Council, Didcot, United Kingdom, (3)Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France, (4)University of Oslo, Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Oslo, Norway, (5)Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, (7)Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany, (8)Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center, Davos Dorf, Switzerland, (9)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)European Space Agency, Villanueva De La Can, Spain, (11)Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Paris, France, (12)ADNET Systems Inc., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (13)European Space Agency, ESAC, Villanueva De La Cañada, Madrid, Spain
Abstract:
SPICE (Spectral Imaging of Coronal Environment) is one of the remote sensing instruments onboard Solar Orbiter. It is an EUV imaging spectrometer observing the Sun in two wavelength bands: 69.6-79.4 nm and 96.6-105.1 nm. SPICE is capable of recording full spectra in these bands with exposures as short as 1s. SPICE is the only Solar Orbiter instrument that can measure EUV spectra from the disk and low corona of the Sun and record all spectral lines simultaneously. SPICE uses one of three narrow slits, 2”x11’, 4’’x11’, 6’’x11’, or a wide slit 30’’x14’. The primary mirror can be scanned in a direction perpendicular to the slit, allowing raster images of up to 16’ in size.
We present an overview of the first SPICE data taken on several days during the instrument commissioning carried out by the RAL Space team between 2020 April 21 and 2020 June 14. We also include results from SPICE observations at the first Solar Orbiter perihelion at 0.52AU, taken between June 16-21st. We give examples of full spectra from the quiet Sun near disk centre and provide a list of key spectral lines emitted in a range of temperatures between 10,000 K and over 1 million K, from neutral hydrogen and ions of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, neon, sulphur and magnesium. We show examples of first raster images in several strong lines, obtained with different slits and a range of exposure times between 5s and 180s. We describe the temperature coverage and density diagnostics, determination of plasma flows, and discuss possible applications to studies of the elemental abundances in the corona. We also show the first off-limb measurements with SPICE, as obtained when the spacecraft pointed at the limb.
