TY - JOUR
T1 - Synoptic Hα full-disk observations of the sun from big bear solar observatory
T2 - I. Instrumentation, Image Processing, Data Products, and First Results
AU - Denker, C.
AU - Johannesson, A.
AU - Marquette, W.
AU - Goode, P. R.
AU - Wang, Haimin
AU - Zirin, H.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank T. Bertram, R. Fear, R. Goeden, I. Johannesson, I. Sammis, and J. Varsik for developing the Hα full-disk system, and for their continuous efforts to improve the synoptic full-disk program. In particular, we thank J. Nenow who developed and build the mechanical system to perform the flat-fielding procedure. This work was supported by NSF under grant ATM-9796196, by ONR under grant N00014-9711037, and by NASA under grant NAG5-4919. We also acknowledge the support of NSF grant ATM-9303508 to Caltech which funded the Kodak 4.2 CCD camera.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) has a long tradition of synoptic full-disk observations. Synoptic observations of contrast enhanced full-disk images in the Ca II K-line have been used with great success to reproduce the H I Lα irradiance variability observed with the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Recent improvements in data calibration procedures and image-processing techniques enable us now to provide contrast enhanced Hα full-disk images with a spatial resolution of approximately 2″ and a temporal resolution of up to 3 frames min-1. In this first paper in a series, we describe the instruments, the data calibration procedures, and the image-processing techniques used to obtain our daily Hα full-disk observations. We also present the final data products such as low- and high-contrast images, and Carrington rotation charts. A time series of an erupting mini-filament further illustrates the quality of our Hα full-disk observations and motivate one of the future research projects. This lays a solid foundation for our subsequent studies of solar activity and chromospheric fine structures. The high quality and the sunrise-to-sunset operation of the Hα full-disk observations presented in this paper make them an ideal choice to study statistical properties of mini-filament eruptions, chromospheric differential rotation, and meridional flows within the chromosphere, as well as the evolution of active regions, filaments, flares, and prominences.
AB - The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) has a long tradition of synoptic full-disk observations. Synoptic observations of contrast enhanced full-disk images in the Ca II K-line have been used with great success to reproduce the H I Lα irradiance variability observed with the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Recent improvements in data calibration procedures and image-processing techniques enable us now to provide contrast enhanced Hα full-disk images with a spatial resolution of approximately 2″ and a temporal resolution of up to 3 frames min-1. In this first paper in a series, we describe the instruments, the data calibration procedures, and the image-processing techniques used to obtain our daily Hα full-disk observations. We also present the final data products such as low- and high-contrast images, and Carrington rotation charts. A time series of an erupting mini-filament further illustrates the quality of our Hα full-disk observations and motivate one of the future research projects. This lays a solid foundation for our subsequent studies of solar activity and chromospheric fine structures. The high quality and the sunrise-to-sunset operation of the Hα full-disk observations presented in this paper make them an ideal choice to study statistical properties of mini-filament eruptions, chromospheric differential rotation, and meridional flows within the chromosphere, as well as the evolution of active regions, filaments, flares, and prominences.
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1005047906097
DO - 10.1023/A:1005047906097
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0002348128
SN - 0038-0938
VL - 184
SP - 87
EP - 102
JO - Solar Physics
JF - Solar Physics
IS - 1
ER -