Concept information
Preferred term
FGE
Definition
- APL deployed the Flare Genesis Experiment (FGE) in Antarctica to provide the sharpest view ever obtained of the evolution of activity in the solar atmosphere. FGE is a balloon-borne solar telescope with an 80-cm telescope that will supply 0.2 arcsec images to a vector magnetograph to map photospheric and chromospheric magnetic fields. The experiment will advance basic scientific understanding of the mechanism of solar variability and provide the practical engineering experience needed for building a large solar observatory in space. Flare Genesis will operate in uninterrupted sunlight well above the turbulent layers of the atmosphere at 125,000 feet to take high-resolution photographs. On-board tape recorders holding 90 gigabytes will collect 110,000 images, and the communications system will relay several thousand images to the ground. FGE has completed its test flight and has been successfully integrated with the NSBF package. The pointing system surpasses the design goal of 10 arcsec rms jitter, and H-alpha images from the Target Selector Telescope and limb photos through the main telescope have been recorded. FGE utilizes several innovative APL developed systems, such as the silicon retina with a fast tilt-tip mirror for image motion compensation and APL's FRISC microcontroller. From January 10 to 27, 2000, the Flare Genesis solar telescope observed the Sun while suspended from a balloon in the stratosphere above Antarctica. The goal of the mission was to acquire long time series of high-resolution images and vector magnetograms of the solar photosphere and chromosphere. Images were obtained in the magnetically sensitive Ca I line at 6122 Angstroms and at H-alpha (6563 Angstroms). The FGE data were obtained in the context of Max Millennium Observing Campaign #004, the objective of which was to study the ``Genesis of Solar Flares and Active Filaments/Sigmoids." Flare Genesis obtained about 26,000 usable images on the 8 targeted active regions. A preliminary examination reveals a good sequence on an emerging flux region and data on the M1 flare on January 22, as well as a number of sequences on active filaments. We will present the results of our first analysis efforts. Flare Genesis was supported by NASA grants NAG5-4955, NAG5-5139, and NAG5-8331 and by NSF grant OPP-9615073. The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization supported early development of the Flare Genesis Experiment. (en)
Broader concept
- D - F (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/92f77d34-bfd3-4461-ac76-bb8130c28502
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