The Principal Investigator (PI) will upgrade the focal plane instrumentation suite (specifically the InfraRed Imaging Magnetograph, or IRIM) from the now-retired 65-cm telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The flexible structural design of the upgraded instruments would allow the IRIM to be available for use with BBSO's New Solar Telescope (NST) now nearing completion, as well as with other solar telescopes whenever NST is not available. IRIM possesses a Fabry-Pérot based narrow-band tunable filter to provide high resolution 2D spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging in the near infrared (NIR). Given the NST's expected adaptive optics capability once it is operational, the PI will install IRIM on the NST with the objective of increasing the spatial resolution and temporal cadence of the NST's spectroscopic and polarimetric measurements of the Sun.
NIR imaging observations with high resolution and high Zeeman sensitivity are rare in solar physics. The IRIM is one of the few instruments able to provide such scientific data to the solar community in campaign mode. With the upgraded IRIM, the PI will study energy transport mechanisms and energy release processes in white light flares in the NIR, as well as center-to-limb variations of facular contrast in the NIR and their relationship to magnetic flux density. The PI expects his observational results to help validate current models of solar and stellar flares, as well as improve small-scale magneto-convection modeling.
To enhance undergraduate and graduate education in astronomy and general science, the PI will create an astronomical instrument teaching laboratory on the NJIT campus. This new laboratory will involve students in the entire process of astronomical instrument design, development, assembly, calibration, and commissioning. The PI will also enhance the existing NJIT astronomy and astrophysics curriculum by adding a course on "Astronomical Instruments and Observational Techniques," which will encourage cross-disciplinary education in Physics, Optical Science and Engineering, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering. The PI's research group will include two undergraduate students and one graduate student, each of whom will participate in this project's instrumental development and scientific objectives. This effort will thereby educate and train the next generation of solar physicists and instrument engineers, using unique observing and laboratory facilities at NJIT and BBSO. The PI's team will also contribute to community education and outreach through solar and space physics presentations provided during the BBSO's public summer tours and through the teaching laboratory on the NJIT campus.
