High-resolution Observations with New Solar Telescope

Abstract:

Observations with the 1.6m aperture New Solar Telescope (NST) are making next steps in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the solar surface structure with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. NST capabilities include the acquisition of filtergrams in the photospheric broadband TiO 7075A line, narrow band images in the HeI 10830A line and observations in the H-alpha 6563A line with the Visible Imaging Spectrometer. Multi-wavelength observations allow us to investigate the evolution of the solar atmosphere. The adaptive optics correction system and the speckle image reconstruction processing technique provide high resolution observations that are revealing previously unresolved features in sunspots, i.e. fine structure of oscillations and waves, penumbral jets, small-scale eruptions, and accretion flows in a form of dense plasma sheets. Studies in less active regions have evidenced the response of the solar atmosphere to the emergence of small-scale magnetic flux. In particular we have detected localized heating and plasma acceleration associated to the interaction of the emerging and ambient magnetic fields. Such process may play a significant role in the mass and energy flow from the interior to the corona. The NST data are providing new observational insights that are also crucial for testing advanced numerical simulations.