Photon/Optical Detectors
type: Concept

SBI
type: Concept
in scheme: instruments
definition: The Solar Bolometric Imager (SBI) was designed to operate for 10-30 days in the stratosphere above Antarctica where it can provide millions of wavelength-integrated images of the Sun. These images will show how solar irradiance sources vary in local magnetic fields and they will show any other sources of solar irradiance variation such as that due to the hypothetical giant cells. This is the best observational approach to characterizing potential causes of the long-term irradiance variations. Discovery of other predicted sources of secular variability, such as torsional waves and meridional flow variations, would constitute a major advance for solar physics and for policy response to global warming. SBI uses a 30-cm diameter F/12 Dall-Kirkham telescope with uncoated mirrors and neutral density filters to provide high precision measurements over the wavelengths from 0.28 microns to 2.6 microns. The SBI sensor has the unique capability to record images of the solar photosphere with a flat photometric response. Each frame from the SBI will be precisely calibrated. Bursts of 60 to 120 frames of the same scene will be co-registered and summed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The scenes will be mosaiced to form images with 5 arc-second resolution over the entire Sun. The calibrated, mosaiced SBI images will be used to derive data products such as 3D plots of intensity contrast versus magnetic flux and distance from Sun center. Inferred solar irradiance variations will be compared with SORCE/TIM and ACRIMSAT measurements. The images and data products will be openly available via the SBI Web page sd-www.jhuapl.edu/SBI/. Group: Instrument_Details Entry_ID: SBI Group: Instrument_Identification Instrument_Category: Earth Remote Sensing Instruments Instrument_Class: Passive Remote Sensing Instrument_Type: Photon/Optical Detectors Short_Name: SBI Long_Name: Solar Bolometric Imager End_Group Group: Instrument_Associated_Sensors Short_Name: CAMERAS End_Group Group: Spectral_…