Latest news with #SolarEruptioNIntegralFieldSpectrograph
The Print
25-07-2025
- Science
- The Print
How NASA's 15-minute flight to study the Sun may help unlock the mysteries of solar astrophysics
The suborbital rocket was launched last week. The flight lasted only 15 minutes, but the Solar EruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS)—as the mission was called— marked the first time a field spectrograph was used to study solar eruptions from space. According to NASA, it could be the next 'trailblazing spectator' of the Sun. The chromosphere is located just below the outermost layer of the Sun known as the corona, and is one of the most 'complex' regions of the Sun. While it is the corona where most solar eruptions are observed, scientists are convinced the chromosphere has a huge role to play in it. New Delhi: NASA's latest mission, the first-ever 'sounding rocket' to space, has brought scientists closer to decoding the sun's solar flares, eruptions, geomagnetic storms and other space weather phenomena that impact Earth's satellites and telecommunications. The mystery rests in the layers of the Sun's surface—specifically the chromosphere. 'The Sun's visible layer photosphere is about 4000-6000 Kelvin hot, but the Corona can go up to 1 million Kelvin,' said Souvik Bose, solar physicist at Lockheed Martin and co-investigator of the SNIFS project. 'So there's clearly something happening in the middle layer, which is the chromosphere, that can help explain this. That's what we're trying to study.' The SNIFS mission went up on a sounding rocket, which is a form of suborbital flight which tests space experiments. It has been under development since 2020, and was part of a joint project by NASA, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, and the University of Colorado. The main element of the mission was an integral field spectrograph. A spectrograph is very simply a device that breaks down light rays into different wavelengths, and studies them individually. Since the Sun's rays contain ultraviolet and far ultraviolet light, which isn't visible to the naked eye, spectroscopy is a common method to study the energy and physics behind the Sun's rays. The SNIFS, however, is an advanced version of the technology that both captures images and studies the Sun's wavelengths. 'Previously, we've observed the Sun using spectroscopy, but they've been limited to narrow portions of the Sun,' explained Bose. 'With SNIFS, we got multiple angles and a much broader scope of the Sun in 2D view because it is a field spectrograph.' Bose described it as getting a picture at one traffic stop versus getting multiple pictures of traffic from multiple locations. With SNIFS, scientists can capture much higher speed and higher resolution of data with multiple dimensions of the Sun. 'Before, we would need to turn a spectrograph multiple times to cover more parts of the Sun. Now, with one 15-minute long flight, we have covered a broader area and get a fuller picture,' said Bose. The sounding rocket was a way to test this new integral field spectrograph in space, and if successful, it could lead to future longer space missions with entire payloads built on the same technology. Also Read: Big step for Samudrayaan as ISRO, NIOT complete key weld on deep-sea submersible after '700 trials' Why the chromosphere? According to a 2024 article by the National Solar Observatory in the US, the Sun's chromosphere is 'one of the most mysterious objects in astrophysics'. It is the place where the temperature, pressure and magnetic field of the Sun undergoes 'dramatic changes'. While the photosphere is what is visible to us from the Earth, it is the chromosphere where the magic is supposed to happen. For years, most missions to the Sun only used to carry imagers that would snap pictures of its rays and layers. However, to get an idea of the energy and heat radiated by the Sun, as well as the characteristics of sudden solar flares, spectroscopy is the way to go. 'We have some very powerful telescopes on Earth that use spectroscopy to study the Sun. But the thing is, the Earth's atmosphere filters out quite a bit of UV rays before they reach us,' explained Bose. Sending a spectrograph to space, beyond the Earth's atmosphere, was, therefore, important to capture the ultraviolet rays that contain essential information about the sun such as what elements make up its rays. The chromosphere has been known to do something strange to elements too, according to Bose. 'The particles like hydrogen, magnesium, and iron are all neutral when they're in the photosphere. But in the chromosphere, they're ionised, so they gain charge,' he explained. 'How does this happen? These are some questions that still persist about the chromosphere's role in the Sun's overall behaviour.' The flight took place on 19 July in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The 15-minute-long suborbital flight reached a height of around 300 kms above the Earth's surface before landing back safely. Now, the team behind the rocket will recover and analyse the data from the experiment, which could take up to a few months. However, Bose and his teammates know how the information from this could help open a new avenue of solar astrophysics. 'To make sure the Earth is safe from space weather, we really would like to be able to model things,' Vicki Herde, a doctoral graduate of University of Colorado Boulder, who worked on the project, said in a NASA press release. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Lift the veil, abandon Soviet-era approach. Indian science community wants ISRO to up its PR game
Indian Express
17-07-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
NASA to launch sounding rocket to study sun's chromosphere
Solar physicists will make a new attempt to observe the chromosphere of the sun, which is the most dynamic region. NASA, along with a team of international solar physicists, will launch a sounding rocket experiment on July 18 from New Mexico. Reddish in colour, the chromosphere is a region sandwiched between the sun's atmosphere (the million-degree corona) and the photosphere (the sun's visible surface). It is in the chromosphere where the solar flares, hot plasma jets, and powerful energy fluxes originate. The temperature variations recorded along this region can vary between 6000 degrees Celsius and over a million degrees Celsius. The suborbital sounding rocket experiment will last under ten minutes. On board will be the Solar EruptioN Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) – a solar gazing spectrograph. a solar-gazing spectrograph solar gazing spectrograph. 'SNIFS is a first-of-its-kind solar instrument and the first ultraviolet integral field spectrograph ever flown to study the Sun. It will observe a magnetically active region on the Sun and capture high-resolution spectroscopic data from both the chromosphere and the transition region — in real time,' Souvik Bose, co-investigator of the mission, told The Indian Express. The SNIFS stands out among the heliophysics missions to study the chromosphere, as scientists will now be able to obtain a full 2D field of view, along with being able to extract a complete spectrum for every pixel in that field, thus making it a 3D data set for each moment in time. SNIFS will target the hydrogen Lyman-alpha line — the brightest line in the solar ultraviolet spectrum and one of the most powerful diagnostics for upper chromospheric conditions. 'From this, we can calculate temperatures, velocities, and densities of the solar plasma,' Bose said and further added, 'It's a dynamic, complex interface through which nearly all the energy that ultimately heats the corona must pass.' So, if we want to solve the long-standing puzzle of why the solar corona is so hot, we must first understand what is happening in the chromosphere.' The instrument comprises a Gregorian-style reflecting telescope, combined with a spectrograph via a specialised mirrorlet array that will focus on the light from each spatial location in the image. This is so that it may be spectrally dispersed without overlap from neighbouring locations. Solar physicists have noted the several challenges in observing the chromosphere and why this belt has remained elusive from detailed studies so far. Due to its composition, which is ionised plasma (a mix of charged and neutral particles), it behaves very differently in the presence of magnetic fields, and secondly, it does not adhere to the assumptions of thermodynamic equilibrium. Modelling the chromosphere has been an uphill task. But it is only an improved understanding of the chromosphere which will help scientists better understand the solar corona. The chromosphere is cooler but denser than the corona. 'This means that the chromosphere rapidly loses energy and will need a continuous supply of energy in order to stay active. Only if there is an understanding of how this energy is supplied and dissipated will it help us piece together the larger story of how the solar corona is heated,' said Bose, who is currently a research scientist at the Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Lab in California. The main agencies involved in this mission are scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Colorado and Queen's University Belfast, UK.
