Sunrise iii: Overview of Observatory and Instruments
A. Lagg, A. Gandorfer, S. K. Solanki, J. C. del Toro Iniesta, Yukio Katsukawa, P. N. Bernasconi, Thomas Berkefeld, A. Feller, T. L. Riethmüller, Alberto Álvarez-Herrero, Masahito Kubo, V. Martı́nez Pillet, H. N. Smitha, David Orozco Suárez, B. Grauf, M. P. Carpenter, Alexander Graham Bell, M. Álvarez, Daniel Álvarez García, Beatriz Aparicio del Moral, Julia Atiénzar, Daniel Ayoub, F. J. Bailén, Eduardo Bailón Martínez, M. Balaguer Jiménez, P. Barthol, Montserrat Bayon Laguna, L. R. Bellot Rubio, Melani Bergmann, J. Blanco Rodríguez, Jan Bochmann, J. M. Borrero, Antonio Campos-Jara, J. S. Castellanos Durán, María Cebollero, Aitor Conde Rodríguez, W. Deutsch, H. Eaton, A. Fernández-Medina, G. Fernández-Rico, A. Ferreres, Andrés García, Ramón María García Alarcia, Pilar García Parejo, Daniel Garranzo-García, J. L. Gasent Blesa, Karin Gerber, D. Germerott, David Gilabert Palmer, L. Gizon, Miguel Angel Gómez Sánchez-Tirado, David González-Bárcena, Alejandro Gonzalo, Sam Goodyear, Hirohisa Hara, Edvarda Harnes, K. Heerlein, F. Heidecke, Jan Heinrichs, David Hernández Expósito, J. Hirzberger, J. Hölken, Sangwon Hyun, F. A. Iglesias, Ryohtaroh T. Ishikawa, Minwoo Jeon, Yusuke Kawabata, M. Kolleck, H. Laguna, Julian Lomas, A. C. López Jiménez, P. Manzano, Takuma Matsumoto, David Mayo Turrado, Thimo Meierdierks, Stefan Meining, Markus Monecke, José Miguel Morales, Antonio J. Moreno Mantas, Alejandro Moreno Vacas, Marc Ferenc Müller, Reinhard Müller, Yoshiyuki Naito, E. Nakai, Armonía Núñez Peral, Takayoshi Oba, Geoffrey Palo, Isabel Pérez-Grande, Javier Piqueras Carreño, Tobias Preis, Damien Przybylski, C. Quintero Noda, Sandeep Ramanath, Jose Luis Ramos Más, N. E. Raouafi, María-Jesús Rivas-Martínez, Pedro I. Rodriguez, Manuel Rodríguez Valido, Basilio Ruiz Cobo, Antonio Sánchez Rodríguez
Abstract
Abstract In July 2024, Sunrise completed its third successful science flight. The Sunrise iii observatory had been upgraded significantly after the two previous successful flights in 2009 and 2013, to tackle the most recent science challenges concerning the solar atmosphere. Three completely new instruments focus on the small-scale physical processes and their complex interaction from the deepest observable layers in the photosphere up to chromospheric heights. Previously poorly explored spectral regions and lines are exploited to paint a three-dimensional picture of the solar atmosphere with unprecedented completeness and level of detail. The full polarimetric information is captured by all three instruments to reveal the interaction between the magnetic fields and the hydrodynamic processes. Two slit-based spectropolarimeters, the Sunrise UV Spectropolarimeter and Imager (SUSI) and the Sunrise Chromospheric Infrared spectro-Polarimeter (SCIP), focus on the near-ultraviolet (309 – 417 nm) and the near-infrared (765 – 855 nm) regions respectively, and the imaging spectropolarimeter Tunable Magnetograph ( TuMag ) simultaneously obtains maps of the full field-of-view of $46\times 46$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mn>46</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mn>46</mml:mn> </mml:math> Mm 2 in the photosphere and the chromosphere in the visible (525 and 517 nm). The instruments are operated in an orchestrated mode, benefiting from a new Image Stabilization and Light Distribution unit ( ISLiD ), with the Correlating Wavefront Sensor (CWS) providing the autofocus control and an image stability with a root-mean-square value smaller than 0.005”. A new gondola was constructed to significantly improve the telescope pointing stability, required to achieve uninterrupted observations over many hours. Sunrise iii was launched successfully on 10 July 2024, from the Esrange Space Center of the Swedish Space Corporation near Kiruna (Sweden). It reached the landing site between the Mackenzie River and the Great Bear Lake in Canada after a flight duration of 6.5 days. In this paper, we give an overview of the Sunrise iii observatory and its instruments.