Tip-tilt wavefront corrector for large-sized CCD cameras

A tip-tilt wavefront (image displacement) corrector has been designed and fabricated to increase the efficiency of direct imaging with large-sized CCD cameras. A plane-parallel glass plate tilting in two mutually perpendicular directions at an angle large enough to compensate for an image displacement of±16″ on a telescope with F ≈ 20 m forms the basis of the device. The device allows up to ≈20 corrections per second to be made when a ～14^m reference star is used. We investigate the effects of aberrations introduced by the plate on the image quality. We present the results of test observations with the corrector performed on the 1.25-m ZTE telescope at the Crimean Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute and the 1.5-m AZT-22 telescope at the Maidanak Observatory, where test images with 1-h exposures that completely realized atmospheric seeing were obtained.     

Variation in the Width of Transition Region Network Boundaries

The transition region network seen in solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lines is the extension of the chromospheric network. The network appears as an irregular web-like pattern over the solar surface outside active regions. The average width of transition region network boundaries is obtained from the two-dimensional autocorrelation function of SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) synoptic images of the Sun in two emission lines, He i 586 Å and O v 630 Å during 1996?–?2012. The width of the network boundaries is found to be roughly correlated with the solar cycle variation with a lag of about ten months. A comparison of the widths in the two emission lines shows that they are larger for the He i line. The SOHO/CDS data also show large asymmetry in boundary widths in the horizontal (x) and vertical (y) image directions, which is shown to be caused by image distortions that are due to instrumental effects. Since the network boundary widths are related to the magnetic flux concentration along the boundaries, the results are expected to have implications on the flux transport on the solar surface, solar cycle, and the mass and energy budget of network loops and jets.     

A fast 2D image reconstruction algorithm from 1D data for the Gaia mission

A fast 2-dimensional image reconstruction method is presented, which takes as input 1-dimensional data acquired from scans across a central source in different orientations. The resultant reconstructed images do not show artefacts due to non-uniform coverage in the orientations of the scans across the central source, and are successful in avoiding a high background due to contamination of the flux from the central source across the reconstructed image. Due to the weighting scheme employed this method is also naturally robust to hot pixels. This method was developed specifically with Gaia data in mind, but should be useful in combining data with mismatched resolutions in different directions.     

Review of Image Quality Measures for Solar Imaging

Observations of the solar photosphere from the ground encounter significant problems caused by Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Before image reconstruction techniques can be applied, the frames obtained in the most favorable atmospheric conditions (the so-called lucky frames) have to be carefully selected. However, estimating the quality of images containing complex photospheric structures is not a trivial task, and the standard routines applied in nighttime lucky imaging observations are not applicable. In this paper we evaluate 36 methods dedicated to the assessment of image quality, which were presented in the literature over the past 40 years. We compare their effectiveness on simulated solar observations of both active regions and granulation patches, using reference data obtained by the Solar Optical Telescope on the Hinode satellite. To create images that are affected by a known degree of atmospheric degradation, we employed the random wave vector method, which faithfully models all the seeing characteristics. The results provide useful information about the method performances, depending on the average seeing conditions expressed by the ratio of the telescope’s aperture to the Fried parameter, \(D/r_{0}\). The comparison identifies three methods for consideration by observers: Helmli and Scherer’s mean, the median filter gradient similarity, and the discrete cosine transform energy ratio. While the first method requires less computational effort and can be used effectively in virtually any atmospheric conditions, the second method shows its superiority at good seeing (\(D/r_{0}<4\)). The third method should mainly be considered for the post-processing of strongly blurred images.     

Image Quality in High-resolution and High-cadence Solar Imaging

Broad-band imaging and even imaging with a moderate bandpass (about 1 nm) provides a photon-rich environment, where frame selection (lucky imaging) becomes a helpful tool in image restoration, allowing us to perform a cost-benefit analysis on how to design observing sequences for imaging with high spatial resolution in combination with real-time correction provided by an adaptive optics (AO) system. This study presents high-cadence (160 Hz) G-band and blue continuum image sequences obtained with the High-resolution Fast Imager (HiFI) at the 1.5-meter GREGOR solar telescope, where the speckle-masking technique is used to restore images with nearly diffraction-limited resolution. The HiFI employs two synchronized large-format and high-cadence sCMOS detectors. The median filter gradient similarity (MFGS) image-quality metric is applied, among others, to AO-corrected image sequences of a pore and a small sunspot observed on 2017 June 4 and 5. A small region of interest, which was selected for fast-imaging performance, covered these contrast-rich features and their neighborhood, which were part of Active Region NOAA 12661. Modifications of the MFGS algorithm uncover the field- and structure-dependency of this image-quality metric. However, MFGS still remains a good choice for determining image quality without a priori knowledge, which is an important characteristic when classifying the huge number of high-resolution images contained in data archives. In addition, this investigation demonstrates that a fast cadence and millisecond exposure times are still insufficient to reach the coherence time of daytime seeing. Nonetheless, the analysis shows that data acquisition rates exceeding 50 Hz are required to capture a substantial fraction of the best seeing moments, significantly boosting the performance of post-facto image restoration.     

Imaging Spectroscopy of a Solar Filament Using a Tunable Hα Filter

Observations using a narrow band Hα filter still remain one of the best ways to investigate the fine structures and internal dynamics of solar filaments. Hα observations, however, have been usually carried out with the peak response of the filter fixed at a single wavelength, usually at the centerline, in which the investigation is limited to the Hα morphology and its time evolution. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Hα spectroscopy that takes Hα images successively at several wavelengths is a useful tool in the study of solar filaments on the solar disk. Our observation of a filament was carried out on August 3, 2004 at Big Bear Solar Observatory using the 10-inch refractor. The Lyot Hα filter was successively tuned to five wavelengths: ?0.6, ?0.3, 0.0, +0.3, and +0.6 Å from the Hα line center. Each set of wavelength scan took 15 s. After several steps of data reduction, we have constructed a five-wavelength spectral profile of intensity contrast at every spatial point. The contrast profile at each spatial point inside the filament was reasonably well fit by the cloud model as far as the contrast is high enough, and allowed us to construct the maps of τ₀, v, Δ λ_D and S in the filament. We also found that the line center method that is often used, always yields line-of-sight velocities that are systematically lower than the cloud model fit. Our result suggests that taking Hα images at several wavelengths using a tunable filter provides an effective way of deriving physically meaningful parameters of solar filaments. Particularly constructing the time sequence of v maps appears to be a useful tool for the study of internal dynamics, like counterstreaming, in filaments.     

Non-linear filtering of compression blocking effects in reconstructed images

The increasing use of data compression by space mission experiments poses the question of quality of the images obtained after the compression-decompression process. Indeed, working on an Image Compression Module (ICM), Using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), with 8*8 pixel-sized sub-images (each pixel being coded on eight bits), one can find blocking effects on their boundaries. Avril and Nguyen (1992, thereafter ANG 1992), have shown that One Neighbour Accounting Filters, used after image reconstruction without modifying the coding method , provide the best and fastest correction as far as linear filtering is concerned. We present here a non-linear method, also used after image reconstruction, but working on spatial frequencies. It allows us to segregate, in the Fourier space, the signal from the defect, and then to remove it through applying a filter adapted to the frequency spectrum of each spoiled image. Employing the reverse Fourier transform, we then retrieve the corrected image. The efficiency of this new method was tested by three different means:- when Fourier filtering is applied to a reference set of aerial photographs of the Earth, blocking effects are quite indistinguishable by human vision, even when zooming on the images, which was not the case with ONAF;- the improvement of the Root Mean Square (RMS) Error, calculated between the filtered and original images, is at least three times greater than the one obtained with ONAF;- the reconstruction of a three-dimensional view of a landscape, thanks to two stereoscopic images having undergone a compression-decompression process with an algorithm using DCT and a compression rate of about 10, is possible only after Fourier filtering has been applied.The quite good preliminary results of the application of Fourier filtering to the Clementine images of the Moon are also represented.     

Automation of the Filament Tracking in the Framework of the HELIO Project

We present a new method to automatically track filaments over the solar disk. The filaments are first detected on Meudon Spectroheliograph Hα images of the Sun, applying the technique developed by Fuller, Aboudarham, and Bentley (Solar Phys. 227, 61, 2005). This technique combines cleaning processes, image segmentation based on region growing, and morphological parameter extraction, including the determination of filament skeletons. The coordinates of the skeleton pixels, given in a heliocentric system, are then converted to a more appropriate reference frame that follows the rotation of the Sun surface. In such a frame, a co-rotating filament is always located around the same position, and its skeletons (extracted from each image) are thus spatially close, forming a group of adjacent features. In a third step, the shape of each skeleton is compared with its neighbours using a curve-matching algorithm. This step will permit us to define the probability [P] that two close filaments in the co-rotating frame are actually the same one observed on two different images. At the end, the pairs of features, for which the corresponding probability is greater than a threshold value, are associated using tracking identification indices. On a representative sample of filaments, the good agreement between automated and manual tracking confirms the reliability of the technique to be applied on large data sets. This code is already used in the framework of the Heliophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO) to populate a catalogue dedicated to solar and heliospheric features (HFC). An extension of this method to other filament observations, and possibly sunspots, faculae, and coronal-holes tracking, can also be envisaged.     

Magnetograph observations with the Swedish solar telescope on La Palma

A high-resolution videomagnetograph that records the images of opposite circular polarization simultaneously has been constructed for the Swedish vacuum solar telescope at La Palma. Magnetograms are obtained by off-line integration of bursts consisting of typically 50 frames of 20 ms exposures, with bad frames rejected, and the frame-to-frame image motion of the remaining frames compensated for by cross-correlation techniques. The short exposures combined with frame selection and elimination of image motion optimizes the resolution and thereby also the S/N, allowing good magnetograms to be obtained with an effective exposure time of less than 1 s at an image scale of 0.1 pixel^–1. The advantages and limitations of the system are discussed and compared with other techniques of making filter magnetograms are discussed.     

4.8 – 20 micron imaging of orion BN/KL: luminosity sources and the role of IRc2

Mid-infrared imaging photometry of the Orion BN/KL infrared cluster at eight wavelengths between 5 and 20µm using a 58 × 62 pixel imaging array camera has revealed new compact sources and the large-scale structure of the region in diffraction-limited (1 arcsec) detail. Several new objects have been detected within a few arcsec of IRc2, widely thought to be the principal luminosity source for the entire BN/KL complex. Detailed color temperature and emission opacity images are derived from the 7.8, 12.4 and 20.0µm observations, and the 9.8µm image is used to derive an image of “silicate” dust extinction for the region. The color temperature, opacity, and extinction images show that IRc2 may not be the single dominant luminosity source for the BN/KL region; substantial contributions to the luminosity could be made by IRc7, BN, KL, and five new compact 10µm sources detected within a few arcseconds of IRc2. We suggest that a luminous, early-type star near IRc2, which is associated with the compact radio source “I” and the Orion SiO maser, is the dominant luminosity source in the BN/KL region, hidden from view by cool dust material with at least Av ～ 60 mag of visible extinction.     

Wave propagation in a magnetic cylinder

The nature of oscillations in a magnetic cylinder embedded in a magnetic environment is investigated. It is shown that the standard slender flux tube analysis of a kink mode in a cylinder excludes the possibility of a second mode, which arises under photospheric conditions. Under coronal conditions, two widely separated classes of oscillation can be freely sustained, one on an acoustic time-scale and the other on an Alfvénic time-scale. The acoustic-type oscillations are always present, but the much shorter period, Alfvénic-type, oscillations arise only in high density (strictly, low Alfvén velocity) loops. An application to waves in fibrils is also given, and suggests (following Wentzel, 1979) that they are fast kink waves propagating in a density enhancement.     

A scenario of the X4.8 flare of 2002 July 23 based on RHESSI and TRACE observations

From an inter-comparison among TRACE, RHESSI, and Hα images of the X4.8 flare of 2002 July 23, we found it to be a typical two-ribbon flare. The Hα and TRACE 195Å images are all shown to have the two-ribbon pattern, while the TRACE 195Å images show also a loop-arch whose footpoints deviate slightly from the ribbons. The TRACE 195Å ribbons match well the higher energy hard X-ray images. During the impulsive phase, the hard X-ray images above 38 keV present a low-lying loop connecting the two ribbons of TRACE 195Å. Above the low-lying loop, there is a coronal low energy hard X-ray source. The spatial structure and evolutionary patterns as a whole are presented. Possible theoretical explanations are briefly discussed.     

Seeing-Induced Errors in Solar Doppler Velocity Measurements

Imaging systems based on a narrow-band tunable filter are used to obtain Doppler velocity maps of solar features. These velocity maps are created by taking the difference between the blue- and red-wing intensity images of a chosen spectral line. This method has the inherent assumption that these two images are obtained under identical conditions. With the dynamical nature of the solar features as well as the Earth’s atmosphere, systematic errors can be introduced in such measurements. In this paper, a quantitative estimate of the errors introduced due to variable seeing conditions for ground-based observations is simulated and compared with real observational data for identifying their reliability. It is shown, under such conditions, that there is a strong cross-talk from the total intensity to the velocity estimates. These spurious velocities are larger in magnitude for the umbral regions compared to the penumbra or quiet-Sun regions surrounding the sunspots. The variable seeing can induce spurious velocities up to about 1 km s⁻¹. It is also shown that adaptive optics, in general, helps in minimising this effect.     

Observations of energetic water-group ions at comet giacobini-zinner: Implications for ion acceleration processes

Observations of energetic water-group pick-up ions made by the EPAS instrument during the ICE fly-by of comet P/Giacobini-Zinner are investigated for evidence concerning the processes which accelerate the ions from initial pick-up energies of around 10 keV up to energies of a few hundred kilo-electronvolts. The form of the ion spectrum in the ion rest frame is first investigated and compared with theoretical suggestions that exponential energy distributions might be produced by either first or second order Fermi acceleration in the cometary environment. It is shown that such distributions do not fit the data at all well, but that rather (over the EPAS ion bulk rest frame energy range of ∼30 to <300 keV) the observed distribution functions closely approximate an exponential in ion speed. The higher energy (> 50 keV) data also fit a power law distribution very well, but at lower energies the data tend to show a flattening below the power law form. It is also shown that the observed spectra are much softer than those calculated by Ip and Axford (1986, Planet. Space Sci. 34, 1061) for the G-Z ion pick-up region upstream of the bow shock, indicating that if these distributions are indeed due to second order Fermi acceleration as they propose, then the ion mean free path must be rather larger than used in their calculations (i.e. rather larger than 5 water-group ion gyroradii). Overall, it is concluded that at the present stage of theoretical development it is premature to draw firm conclusions about acceleration mechanisms from studies of the ion spectrum alone. However, from the general spectral analysis it is also possible to investigate the variations of ion intensity and spectral hardness which take place during the comet encounter, and to gain an indication of the degree of isotropy of the ion distribution in the rest frame of the flow. We find that a ∼.5 × 10⁴km-wide region (∼ 35 min along the spacecraft trajectory) of rapid ion intensification and spectral hardening occurs immediately upstream from the turbulent mass-loaded region, suggestive of a first order Fermi process in which ions are successively reflected between the outer layer of the slowed, turbulent region and waves in the faster upstream flow. It is shown that within the turbulent region the ion distribution becomes rapidly isotropized in its own bulk rest frame, indicative of a sudden reduction in ion mean free path. Additional processes (possibly second order Fermi acceleration) must also occur in order to account for the further modest intensifications of the energetic ion fluxes observed within the turbulent mass-loaded region, as well as the presence of ions in the outer pick-up region which have energies well in excess of the local pick-up energy.     

Assessing the Constrained Harmonic Mean Method for Deriving the Kinematics of ICMEs with a Numerical Simulation

In this study we use a numerical simulation of an artificial coronal mass ejection (CME) to validate a method for calculating propagation directions and kinematical profiles of interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs). In this method observations from heliospheric images are constrained with in-situ plasma and field data at 1 AU. These data are used to convert measured ICME elongations into distance by applying the harmonic mean approach, which assumes a spherical shape of the ICME front. We used synthetic white-light images, similar to those observed by STEREO-A/HI, for three different separation angles between remote and in-situ spacecraft of 30^°, 60^°, and 90^°. To validate the results of the method, the images were compared to the apex speed profile of the modeled ICME, as obtained from a top view. This profile reflects the “true” apex kinematics because it is not affected by scattering or projection effects. In this way it is possible to determine the accuracy of the method for revealing ICME propagation directions and kinematics. We found that the direction obtained by the constrained harmonic mean method is not very sensitive to the separation angle (30^° sep: ?=W7; 60^° sep: ?=W12; 90^° sep: ?=W15; true dir.: E0/W0). For all three cases the derived kinematics agree relatively well with the real kinematics. The best consistency is obtained for the 30^° case, while with growing separation angle the ICME speed at 1 AU is increasingly overestimated (30^° sep: ΔV _arr≈??50 km?s^?1, 60^° sep: ΔV _arr≈+?75 km?s^?1, 90^° sep: ΔV _arr≈+?125 km?s^?1). Especially for future L₄/L₅ missions, the 60^° separation case is highly interesting in order to improve space-weather forecasts.     

Automated Processing of LASCO Coronal Images: Spurious Point-Source-Filtering and Missing-Blocks Correction

We report on automated procedures for correcting the images of the LASCO coronagraph for i) spurious quasi-point-sources such as the impacts of cosmic rays, stars, and planets, and ii) the absence of signal due to transmission errors or dropouts, which results in blocks of missing information in the images. Correcting for these undesirable artifacts is mandatory for all quantitative works on the solar corona that require data inversion and/or long series of images, for instance. The nonlinear filtering of spike noise or point-like objects is based on mathematical morphology and implements the procedure opening by morphological reconstruction. However, a simple opening filter is applied whenever the fractional area of corrupted pixels exceeds 50 % of the original image. We describe different strategies for reconstructing the missing information blocks. In general, it is possible to implement the method of averaged neighbors using the two images obtained immediately before and after the corrupted image. For the other cases, and in particular when missing blocks overlapped in three images, we developed an original procedure of weighted interpolation along radial profiles from the center of the Sun that intercept the missing block(s). This procedure is also adequate for the saturated images of bright planets (such as Venus) that bleed along the neighboring pixels. Missing blocks in polarized images may generally be reconstructed using the associated unpolarized image of the same format. But in the case of overlapping missing blocks, we implemented our procedure of weighted interpolation. All tests performed on numerous LASCO-C2 images at various periods of solar activity (i.e. varying complexity of the structure of the corona) demonstrate the excellent performance of these new procedures, with results vastly superior to the methods implemented so far in the pipeline-processing of the LASCO images.     

Comet Hale-Bopp in outburst: Imaging the dynamics of icy particles with HST/NICMOS

Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged at wavelengths from 1.87 to 2.22 μm by HST/NICMOS in post-perihelion observations starting on UT 1997 August 27.95. Diffraction-limited (∼02) images were obtained at high signal-to-noise (∼1500) to probe the composition and dynamics of the inner coma and also the size and activity of the nucleus. The velocities of several unusual morphological features over a 1.7 h period, indicate that a significant outburst occurred 7.4 h prior to these images while the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.49 AU. Similar features are also apparent after re-analysis of pre-perihelion ground-based images. The inner coma (radius ?2500 km) is dominated by an “arc” feature, which expanded and became more diffuse with time. This feature can be modeled as the bright central portion of a “jet of outburst” from a near-equatorial region of the nucleus. Less prominent, time-variable linear and circular morphologies are also apparent. The expansion rates of both the arc feature and the circular morphologies imply a common origin and also suggest a grain size distribution with two broad maxima. In addition, several static linear features extend to the edge of the field of view (21,100 km). Radial brightness profiles are highly asymmetric and only approach a ρ⁻¹ decline at distances ?15,000 km. Images in a narrow-band filter at 2.04 μm exhibit a ∼4% absorption feature relative to nearly simultaneous images at wavelengths of 2.22, 1.90, and 1.87 μm. This absorption is attributed to H₂O ice in the coma grains. The spatial distribution and expansion velocity of the absorption at 2.04 μm indicate that these grains are associated with the outburst. The constancy of the absorption feature indicates no appreciable sublimation over 1.7 h. The unresolved nucleus has a flux density consistent with a 40±10 km diameter assuming a 4% geometric albedo.