清水 敏文

We characterize the KID1 &amp D2 lines in order to determine whether they could complement the 850 nm window, containing the Ca II infrared triplet lines and several Zeeman sensitive photospheric lines, that was studied previously. We investigate the effect of partial redistribution on the intensity profiles, their sensitivity to changes in different atmospheric parameters, and the spatial distribution of Zeeman polarization signals employing a realistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation. The results show that these lines form in the upper photosphere at around 500 km, and that they are sensitive to the line-of-sight velocity and magnetic field strength at heights where neither the photospheric lines nor the Ca II infrared lines are. However, at the same time, we found that their sensitivity to the temperature essentially comes from the photosphere. Then, we conclude that the KI lines provide a complement to the lines in the 850 nm window for the determination of atmospheric parameters in the upper photosphere, especially for the line-of-sight velocity and the magnetic field.

Some types of solar flares are observed in X-shaped quadrupolar field configuration. To understand the magnetic energy storage in such a region, we studied non-potential field formation in an X-shaped quadrupolar field region formed in the active region NOAA 11967, which produced three X-shaped M-class flares on 2014 February 2. Nonlinear force-free field modeling was applied to a time series of vector magnetic field maps from the Solar Optical Telescope on board Hinode and the. Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Our analysis of the temporal three-dimensional magnetic field evolution shows that the sufficient free energy had already been stored more than 10 hr before the occurrence of the first M-class flare and that the storage was observed in a localized region. In this localized region, quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs) started to develop gradually from 9 hr before the first M-class flare. One of the flare ribbons that appeared in the first M-class flare was co-spatial with the location of the QSLs, suggesting that the formation of the QSLs is important in the process of energy release. These QSLs do not appear in the potential field calculation, indicating that they were created by the non-potential field. The formation of the QSLs was associated with the transverse photospheric motion of the pre-emerged flux and the emergence of a new flux. This observation indicates that the occurrence of the flares requires the formation of QSLs in the non-potential field in which free magnetic energy is stored in advance.

The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter is a sounding rocket experiment that has provided the first successful measurement of the linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Lyα line (121.57 nm) radiation of the solar disk. In this paper, we report that the Si iii line at 120.65 nm also shows scattering polarization and we compare the scattering polarization signals observed in the Lyα and Si iii lines in order to search for observational signatures of the Hanle effect. We focus on four selected bright structures and investigate how the U/I spatial variations vary between the Lyα wing, the Lyα core, and the Si iii line as a function of the total unsigned photospheric magnetic flux estimated from Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager observations. In an internetwork region, the Lyα core shows an antisymmetric spatial variation across the selected bright structure, but it does not show it in other more magnetized regions. In the Si iii line, the spatial variation of U/I deviates from the above-mentioned antisymmetric shape as the total unsigned photospheric magnetic flux increases. A plausible explanation of this difference is the operation of the Hanle effect. We argue that diagnostic techniques based on the scattering polarization observed simultaneously in two spectral lines with very different sensitivities to the Hanle effect, like Lyα and Si iii, are of great potential interest for exploring the magnetism of the upper solar chromosphere and transition region.

The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter is a sounding rocket experiment that has provided the first successful measurement of the linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Ly alpha line (121.57 nm) radiation of the solar disk. In this paper, we report that the Si III line at 120.65. nm also shows scattering polarization and we compare the scattering polarization signals observed in the Ly alpha and Si III lines in order to search for observational signatures of the Hanle effect. We focus on four selected bright structures and investigate how the U/I spatial variations vary between the Ly alpha wing, the Ly alpha core, and the Si III line as a function of the total unsigned photospheric magnetic flux estimated from Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager observations. In an internetwork region, the Ly alpha core shows an antisymmetric spatial variation across the selected bright structure, but it does not show it in other more magnetized regions. In the Si III line, the spatial variation of U/I deviates from the above-mentioned antisymmetric shape as the total unsigned photospheric magnetic flux increases. A plausible explanation of this difference is the operation of the Hanle effect. We argue that diagnostic techniques based on the scattering polarization observed simultaneously in two spectral lines with very different sensitivities to the Hanle effect, like Ly alpha and Si III, are of great potential interest for exploring the magnetism of the upper solar chromosphere and transition region.

The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter is a sounding rocket instrument designed to measure for the first time the linear polarization of the hydrogen Lyman-α line (121.6 nm). The instrument was successfully launched on 3 September 2015 and observations were conducted at the solar disc center and close to the limb during the five-minutes flight. In this article, the disc center observations are used to provide an in-flight calibration of the instrument spurious polarization. The derived in-flight spurious polarization is consistent with the spurious polarization levels determined during the pre-flight calibration and a statistical analysis of the polarization fluctuations from solar origin is conducted to ensure a 0.014% precision on the spurious polarization. The combination of the pre-flight and the in-flight polarization calibrations provides a complete picture of the instrument response matrix, and a proper error transfer method is used to confirm the achieved polarization accuracy. As a result, the unprecedented 0.1% polarization accuracy of the instrument in the vacuum ultraviolet is ensured by the polarization calibration.

The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter is a sounding rocket instrument designed to measure for the first time the linear polarization of the hydrogen Lyman-alpha line (121.6 nm). The instrument was successfully launched on 3 September 2015 and observations were conducted at the solar disc center and close to the limb during the five minutes flight. In this article, the disc center observations are used to provide an in-flight calibration of the instrument spurious polarization. The derived in-flight spurious polarization is consistent with the spurious polarization levels determined during the pre-flight calibration and a statistical analysis of the polarization fluctuations from solar origin is conducted to ensure a 0.014% precision on the spurious polarization. The combination of the pre-flight and the in-flight polarization calibrations provides a complete picture of the instrument response matrix, and a proper error transfer method is used to confirm the achieved polarization accuracy. As a result, the unprecedented 0.1% polarization accuracy of the instrument in the vacuum ultraviolet is ensured by the polarization calibration.

There is a thin transition region (TR) in the solar atmosphere where the temperature rises from 10,000 K in the chromosphere to millions of degrees in the corona. Little is known about the mechanisms that dominate this enigmatic region other than the magnetic field plays a key role. The magnetism of the TR can only be detected by polarimetric measurements of a few ultraviolet (UV) spectral lines, the Ly alpha line of neutral hydrogen at 121.6. nm (the strongest line of the solar UV spectrum) being of particular interest given its sensitivity to the Hanle effect (the magnetic-field-induced modification of the scattering line polarization). We report the discovery of linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the Ly alpha line, obtained with the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) rocket experiment. The Stokes profiles observed by CLASP in quiet regions of the solar disk show that the Q/I and U/I linear polarization signals are of the order of 0.1% in the line core and up to a few percent in the nearby wings, and that both have conspicuous spatial variations with scales of similar to 10. arcsec. These observations help constrain theoretical models of the chromosphere-corona TR and extrapolations of the magnetic field from photospheric magnetograms. In fact, the observed spatial variation from disk to limb of polarization at the line core and wings already challenge the predictions from three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical models of the upper solar chromosphere.

A 1.5 m aperture optical telescope is planned for the next Japanese solar mission SOLAR-C as one of major three observing instruments. The optical telescope is designed to provide high-angular-resolution investigation of lower atmosphere from the photosphere to the uppermost chromosphere with enhanced spectroscopic and spectro-polarimetric capability covering a wide wavelength region from 280 nm to 1100 nm. The opto-mechanical and -thermal performance of the telescope is crucial to attain high-quality solar observations and we present a study of optical and structural design of the large aperture space solar telescope, together with conceptual design of its accompanying focal plane instruments: wide-band and narrow-band filtergraphs and a spectro-polarimeter for high spatial and temporal observations in the solar photospheric and chromospheric lines useful for sounding physical condition of dynamical phenomena.

The next Japanese solar mission, SOLAR-C, which has been envisaged after successful science operation of Hinode (SOLAR-B) mission, is perusing two plans: plan-A and plan-B, and under extensive study from science objectives as well as engineering point of view. The plan-A aims at performing out-of-ecliptic observations for investigating, with helioseismic approach, internal structure and dynamo mechanisms of the Sun. It also explores polar regions where fast solar wind is believed to originate. A baseline orbit for plan-A is a circular orbit of 1 AU distance from the Sun with its inclination at around or greater than 40 degrees. The plan-B aims to study small-scale plasma processes and structures in the solar atmosphere which attract researchers' growing interest, followed by many Hinode discoveries [1], for understanding fully dynamism and magnetic nature of the atmosphere. With plan-B, high-angular-resolution investigation of the entire solar atmosphere (from the photosphere to the corona, including their interface layers, i.e., chromosphere and transition region) is to be performed with enhanced spectroscopic and spectro-polarimetric capability as compared with Hinode, together with enhanced sensitivity towards ultra-violet wavelengths. The orbit of plan-B is either a solar synchronous polar orbit of altitude around 600 km or a geosynchronous orbit to ensure continuous solar observations. After the decision of any one of the two plans, the SOLAR-C will be proposed for launch in mid-2010s. In this paper, we will present a basic design of one of major planned instrumental payload for the plan-B: the Solar Ultra-violet Visible and near IR observing Telescope (hereafter referred to as SUVIT). The basic concept in designing the SUVIT is to utilize as much as possible a heritage of successful telescope of the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard Hinode [2]. Major differences of SUVIT from SOT are the three times larger aperture of 1.5 m, which enables to collect one order of magnitude more photons than SOT, relatively shorter telescope length of 2.8 m to accommodate a launcher's nosecone size for possible dual-satellite-launch configuration, and much wider observing wavelength from UV (down to 250 nm) through near IR (up to 1100 nm). The large aperture is essentially important to attain scientific goals of the plan-B, especially for accurate diagnostics of the dynamic solar chromosphere as revealed by Hinode, although this make it difficult to design the telescope because of ten times more solar heat load introduced into the telescope. The SUVIT consists of two optically separable components the telescope assembly (TA) and an accompanying focal plane package equipped with filtergraphs and spectrographs. Opto-mechanical and -thermal performance of the TA is crucial to attain high-quality solar observations and here we present a status of feasible study in its optical and thermal designing for diffraction-limited performance at visible wavelength in a reasonably wide field of view.

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard Solar-B satellite (Hinode) is designed to perform high-precision photometric and polarimetric observations of the solar lower atmosphere in visible light spectra (388 - 668 nm) with a spatial resolution of 0.2 to 0.3 arcsec. The SOT consists of two components the optical telescope assembly (OTA) consisting of a 50-cm aperture Gregorian telescope with a collimating lens unit and an active tip-tilt mirror for an image-stabilization and an accompanying focal plane package (FPP) housing two filtergraphs and a spectro-polarimeter. Since its first-light observation on 25 Oct. 2006, the image-stabilization system has been working with performance better than 0.01 arcsec rms and the SOT has been continuously providing unprecedented solar data of high spatial resolution. Since the opto-mechanical and -thermal performance of the OTA is crucial to attain unprecedented high-quality solar observations, we here describe in detail the instrument design and on-orbit diffraction-limit performance of the OTA, the largest state-of-the-art solar telescope yet flown in space.

Future solar missions and ground-based telescopes aim to understand the magnetism of the solar chromosphere. We performed a supporting study in Quintero Noda et al. focused on the infrared Ca II 8542Å line and we concluded that it is one of the best candidates because it is sensitive to a large range of atmospheric heights, from the photosphere to the middle chromosphere. However, we believe that it is worth trying to improve the results produced by this line observing additional spectral lines. In that regard, we examined the neighbourhood solar spectrum looking for spectral lines which could increase the sensitivity to the atmospheric parameters. Interestingly, we discovered several photospheric lines which greatly improve the photospheric sensitivity to the magnetic field vector. Moreover, they are located close to a second chromospheric line which also belongs to the Ca II infrared triplet, i.e. the Ca II 8498Å line, and enhances the sensitivity to the atmospheric parameters at chromospheric layers. We conclude that the lines in the vicinity of the Ca II 8542Å line not only increase its sensitivity to the atmospheric parameters at all layers, but also they constitute an excellent spectral window for chromospheric polarimetry.

High-cadence observations by the slit-jaw (SJ) optics system of the sounding rocket experiment known as the Chromospheric Lyman Alpha Spectropolarimeter (CLASP) reveal ubiquitous intensity disturbances that recurrently propagate in either the chromosphere or the transition region or both at a speed much higher than the speed of sound. The CLASP/SJ instrument provides a time series of two-dimensional images taken with broadband filters centered on the Ly alpha line at a 0.6 s cadence. The multiple fast-propagating intensity disturbances appear in the quiet Sun and in an active region, and they are clearly detected in at least 20 areas in a field of view of 527 '' x 527 '' during the 5 minute observing time. The apparent speeds of the intensity disturbances range from 150 to 350 km s(-1), and they are comparable to the local Alfven speed in the transition region. The intensity disturbances tend to propagate along bright elongated structures away from areas with strong photospheric magnetic fields. This suggests that the observed fast-propagating intensity disturbances are related to the magnetic canopy structures. The maximum distance traveled by the intensity disturbances is about 10 '', and the widths are a few arcseconds, which are almost determined by a pixel size of 1.'' 03. The timescale of each intensity pulse is shorter than 30 s. One possible explanation for the fast-propagating intensity disturbances observed by CLASP is magnetohydrodynamic fast-mode waves.

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves have been considered as energy sources for heating the solar chromosphere and the corona. Although MHD waves have been observed in the solar atmosphere, there are a lack of quantitative estimates on the energy transfer and dissipation in the atmosphere. We performed simultaneous Hinode and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph observations of a sunspot umbra to derive the upward energy fluxes at two different atmospheric layers (photosphere and lower transition region) and estimate the energy dissipation. The observations revealed some properties of the observed periodic oscillations in physical quantities, such as their phase relations, temporal behaviors, and power spectra, making a conclusion that standing slow-mode waves are dominant at the photosphere with their high-frequency leakage, which is observed as upward waves at the chromosphere and the lower transition region. Our estimates of upward energy fluxes are 2.0 x 10(7) erg cm(-2) s(-1) at the photospheric level and 8.3 x 10(4) erg cm(-2) s(-1) at the lower transition region level. The difference between the energy fluxes is larger than the energy required to maintain the chromosphere in the sunspot umbrae, suggesting that the observed waves can make a crucial contribution to the heating of the chromosphere in the sunspot umbrae. In contrast, the upward energy flux derived at the lower transition region level is smaller than the energy flux required for heating the corona, implying that we may need another heating mechanism. We should, however, note a possibility that the energy dissipated at the chromosphere might be overestimated because of the opacity effect.

Polar faculae are bright features that can be detected in solar limb observations and they are related to magnetic field concentrations. Although there are a large number of works studying them, some questions about their nature as theirmagnetic properties at different heights are still open. Thus, we aim to improve the understanding of solar polar faculae. In that sense, we infer the vertical stratification of the temperature, gas pressure, line-of-sight velocity and magnetic field vector of polar faculae regions. We performed inversions of the Stokes profiles observed with Hinode/Spectropolarimeter after removing the stray light contamination produced by the spatial point spread function of the telescope. Moreover, after solving the azimuth ambiguity, we transform the magnetic field vector to local solar coordinates. The obtained results reveal that the polar faculae are constituted by hot plasma with low line-of-sight velocities and single polarity magnetic fields in the kilogauss range that are nearly perpendicular to the solar surface. We also found that the spatial location of these magnetic fields is slightly shifted respect to the continuum observations towards the disc centre. We believe that this is due to the hot wall effect that allows detecting photons that come from deeper layers located closer to the solar limb.

The next generation of space- and ground-based solar missions aim to study the magnetic properties of the solar chromosphere using the infrared Ca II lines and the He i 10830 � line. The former seem to be the best candidates to study the stratification of magnetic fields in the solar chromosphere and their relation to the other thermodynamical properties underlying the chromospheric plasma. The purpose of this work is to provide a detailed analysis of the diagnostic capabilities of the Ca II 8542 � line, anticipating forthcoming observational facilities. We study the sensitivity of the Ca II 8542 � line to perturbations applied to the physical parameters of reference semi-empirical 1D model atmospheres using response functions and we make use of 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations to examine the expected polarization signals for moderate magnetic field strengths. Our results indicate that the Ca II 8542 � line is mostly sensitive to the layers enclosed in the range log τ = [0,-5.5], under the physical conditions that are present in our model atmospheres. In addition, the simulated magnetic flux tube generates strong longitudinal signals in its centre and moderate transversal signals, due to the vertical expansion of magnetic field lines, in its edge. Thus, observing the Ca II 8542 � line we will be able to infer the 3D geometry of moderate magnetic field regions.

Solar limb observations sometimes reveal the presence of a satellite lobe in the blue wing of the Stokes I profile from pixels belonging to granules. The presence of this satellite lobe has been associated in the past to strong line-of-sight gradients and, as the line-of-sight component is almost parallel to the solar surface, to horizontal granular flows. We aim to increase the knowledge about these horizontal flows studying a spectropolarimetric observation of the north solar pole. We will make use of two state of the art techniques, the spatial deconvolution procedure that increases the quality of the data removing the stray light contamination, and spectropolarimetric inversions that will provide the vertical stratification of the atmospheric physical parameters where the observed spectral lines form. We inverted the Stokes profiles using a two component configuration, obtaining that one component is strongly blueshifted and displays a temperature enhancement at upper photospheric layers while the second component has low redshifted velocities and it is cool at upper layers. In addition, we examined a large number of cases located at different heliocentric angles, finding smaller velocities as we move from the centre to the edge of the granule. Moreover, the height location of the enhancement on the temperature stratification of the blueshifted component also evolves with the spatial location on the granule being positioned on lower heights as we move to the periphery of the granular structure.

We have developed a new narrow-band universal tunable filter to perform imaging spectroscopy of the solar chromosphere. The development stage of the filter has been almost finished and we shifted to the scientific observation phase by using large grand-based telescopes. Using the filter, a series of high-resolution images were obtained with the 1m vacuum solar telescope at the Fwdan Solar Observatory. We succeeded in observing several flares and fine structures of the chromospheric layer.

We developed a polarization modulation unit (PMU), a motor system to rotate a waveplate continuously. In polarization measurements, the continuous rotating waveplate is an important element as well as a polarization analyzer to record the incident polarization in a time series of camera exposures. The control logic of PMU was originally developed for the next Japanese solar observation satellite SOLAR-C by the SOLAR-C working group. We applied this PMU for the Chromospheric Lyman• alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP). CLASP is a sounding rocket experiment to observe the linear polarization of the Lyman• alpha emission (121.6 nm vacuum ultraviolet) from the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun with a high polarization sensitivity of 0.1 % for the first time and investigate their vector magnetic field by the Hanle effect. The driver circuit was developed to optimize the rotation for the CLASP waveplate (12.5 rotations per minute). Rotation non• uniformity of the waveplate causes error in the polarization degree (i.e. scale error) and crosstalk between Stokes components. We confirmed that PMU has superior rotation uniformity in the ground test and the scale error and crosstalk of Stokes Q and U are less than 0.01 %. After PMU was attached to the CLASP instrument, we performed vibration tests and confirmed all PMU functions performance including rotation uniformity did not change. CLASP was successfully launched on September 3, 2015, and PMU functioned well as designed. PMU achieved a good rotation uniformity, and the high precision polarization measurement of CLASP was successfully achieved.

Solar pores are active regions with large magnetic field strengths and apparent simple magnetic configurations. Their properties resemble the ones found for the sunspot umbra although pores do not show penumbra. Therefore, solar pores present themselves as an intriguing phenomenon that is not completely understood. We examine in this work a solar pore observed with Hinode/SP using two state of the art techniques. The first one is the spatial deconvolution of the spectropolarimetric data that allows removing the stray light contamination induced by the spatial point spread function of the telescope. The second one is the inversion of the Stokes profiles assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium that let us to infer the atmospheric physical parameters. After applying these techniques, we found that the spatial deconvolution method does not introduce artefacts, even at the edges of the magnetic structure, where large horizontal gradients are detected on the atmospheric parameters. Moreover, we also describe the physical properties of the magnetic structure at different heights finding that, in the inner part of the solar pore, the temperature is lower than outside, the magnetic field strength is larger than 2 kG and unipolar, and the line-of-sight velocity is almost null. At neighbouring pixels, we found low magnetic field strengths of same polarity and strong downward motions that only occur at the low photosphere, below the continuum optical depth log τ = -1. Finally, we studied the spatial relation between different atmospheric parameters at different heights corroborating the physical properties described before.

We developed a polarization modulation unit (PMU) to rotate a waveplate continuously in order to observe solar magnetic fields by spectropolarimetry. The non-uniformity of the PMU rotation may cause errors in the measurement of the degree of linear polarization (scale error) and its angle (crosstalk between Stokes-Q and -U), although it does not cause an artificial linear polarization signal (spurious polarization). We rotated a waveplate with the PMU to obtain a polarization modulation curve and estimated the scale error and crosstalk caused by the rotation non-uniformity. The estimated scale error and crosstalk were (Formula presented.) for both. This PMU will be used as a waveplate motor for the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP) rocket experiment. We confirm that the PMU performs and functions sufficiently well for CLASP.

The Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) successfully observed the transit of Venus with an unprecedented high spatial resolution on 5 – 6 June 2012, providing images of the aureole refracted by the atmosphere of Venus and the dark Venus disk against the bright solar surface. The transit of Venus provided a unique opportunity for calibrating the plate scale of SOT images. With the examination of the radius of the dark Venus disk, we determined the plate scale of G-band 430.5 nm images with high accuracy: 0.05369±0.00005 arcsec pixel−1. The radius was defined at the intensity level of the 0.5 transmittance and compared with the angular radius of Venus including the thickness of the atmosphere determined with the measurements of SPICAV onboard Venus Express. Thanks to the high spatial resolution, SOT images show that the dark Venus can be well represented by an ellipse. We observed 7.6 km difference in altitude between the equator and the polar regions.

Solar flares abruptly release the free energy stored as a non-potential magnetic field in the corona and may be accompanied by eruptions of the coronal plasma. Formation of a non-potential magnetic field and the mechanisms for triggering the onset of flares are still poorly understood. In particular, photospheric dynamics observed near those polarity inversion lines that are sites of major flare production have not been well observed with high spatial resolution spectro-polarimetry. This paper reports on a remarkable high-speed material flow observed along the polarity inversion line located between flare ribbons at the main energy release side of an X5.4 flare on 2012 March 7. Observations were carried out by the spectro-polarimeter of the Solar Optical Telescope on board Hinode. The high-speed material flow was observed in the horizontally oriented magnetic field formed nearly parallel to the polarity inversion line. This flow persisted from at least six hours before the onset of the flare, and continued for at least several hours after the onset of the flare. Observations suggest that the observed material flow represents neither the emergence nor convergence of the magnetic flux. Rather, it may be considered to be material flow working both to increase the magnetic shear along the polarity inversion line and to develop magnetic structures favorable for the onset of the eruptive flare.

A sounding-rocket experiment called the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) is presently under development to measure the linear polarization profiles in the hydrogen Lyman-alpha (Ly alpha) line at 121.567 nm. CLASP is a vacuum-UV (VUV) spectropolarimeter to aim for first detection of the linear polarizations caused by scattering processes and the Hanle effect in the Lya line with high accuracy (0.1%). This is a fist step for exploration of magnetic fields in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun. Accurate measurements of the linear polarization signals caused by scattering processes and the Hanle effect in strong UV lines like Lya are essential to explore with future solar telescopes the strength and structures of the magnetic field in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun. The CLASP proposal has been accepted by NASA in 2012, and the flight is planned in 2015.

A large aperture solar optical telescope and its instruments for the SOLAR-C mission are under study to provide the critical physical parameters in the lower solar atmosphere and to resolve the mechanism of magnetic dynamic events happening there and in the upper atmosphere as well. For the precise magnetic field measurements and high angular resolution in wide wavelength region, covering FOV of 3 arcmin x3 arcmin, an entrance aperture of 1.4 m Gregorian telescope is proposed. Filtergraphs are designed to realize high resolution imaging and pseudo 2D spectro-polarimetry in several magnetic sensitive lines of both photosphere and chromosphere. A full stokes polarimetry is carried out at three magnetic sensitive lines with a four-slit spectrograph of 2D image scanning mechanism. We present a progress in optical and structural design of SOLAR-C large aperture optical telescope and its observing instruments which fulfill science requirements.

We have developed a new narrowband tunable filter to perform imaging spectroscopy of the solar chromosphere. Using Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders (LCVRs) as the tuning elements for wavelength, wide-band polarizers and super achromatic half-wave plates, it is possible to make high speed tuning (about 0.1sec), to exclude mechanical drives (and oil tank), and to cover a wide wavelength range (510-1100nm). This filter builds up with seven stages each consisting of a pair of calcites, LCVR, half-wave plates and linear polarizer. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the filter transmission is about 0.025nm at 656.3nm. We demonstrate that the concept of the universal tunable filter using the LCVR's as tuning elements is highly promising for future application to space mission and ground based observations.

We have been developing a rotating mechanism and a linear motion mechanism for their usage in contamination sensitive space telescopes. They both are needed for similar to 1.4 meter optical telescope and its focal plane instrument onboard SOLAR-C, the next-generation spaceborne solar observatory following Hinode. Highly reliable long life performance, low outgassing properties, and low level of micro-vibration are required along with their scientific performance. With the proto-type mechanisms, the long life performance and outgassing properties of the mechanisms have been evaluated in vacuum chambers. The level of micro-vibration excited during the operations of the rotating mechanism was measured by operating it on the Kestler table. This paper provides the overall descriptions of our mechanism developments.

We used the flux-calibrated images from the Broad-band Filter Imager and Stokes Polarimeter data obtained with the Solar Optical Telescope onboard the Hinode spacecraft to study the properties of bright points in and around sunspots. The selected bright points are smaller in diameter than 150 km with contrasts exceeding about 3 % in the ratio of sunspot images obtained with the G-band (430.5 nm) and Ca ii H (396.85 nm) filters. The bright points are classified as umbral dot, peripheral umbral dot, penumbral grains, and G-band bright point depending on their location. The bright points are preferentially located around the penumbral boundary and in the fast decaying parts of the umbra. The color temperature of the bright points is in the range of 4600 K to 6600 K with cooler ones located in the central part of the umbra. The temperature increases as a function of distance from the center outward. The G-band, CN-band (388.35 nm), and Ca ii H fluxes of the bright points as a function of their blue-band (450.55 nm) brightness increase continuously in a nonlinear fashion unlike their red (668.4 nm) and green (555.05 nm) counterparts. This is consistent with a model in which the localized heating of the flux tube depletes the molecular concentration, resulting in the reduced opacity that leads to the exposition of deeper and hotter layers. The light curve of the bright points shows that the enhanced brightness at these locations lasts for about 15 to 60 min with the least contrast for the points outside the sunspot. The umbral dots near the penumbral boundary are associated with elongated filamentary structures. The spectropolarimeter observations show that the filling factor decreases as the G-band brightness increases. We discuss the results using the model in which the G-band bright points are produced in the cluster of flux tubes that a sunspot consists of.

White-light emissions were observed from an X1.7 class solar flare on 2012 January 27, using three continuum bands (red, green, and blue) of the Solar Optical Telescope on board the Hinode satellite. This event occurred near the solar limb, and so differences in the locations of the various emissions are consistent with differences in heights above the photosphere of the various emission sources. Under this interpretation, our observations are consistent with the white-light emissions occurring at the lowest levels of where the Ca II H emission occurs. Moreover, the centers of the source regions of the red, green, and blue wavelengths of the white-light emissions are significantly displaced from each other, suggesting that those respective emissions are emanating from progressively lower heights in the solar atmosphere. The temperature distribution was also calculated from the white-light data, and we found the lower-layer emission to have a higher temperature. This indicates that high-energy particles penetrated down to near the photosphere, and deposited heat into the ambient lower layers of the atmosphere.

In this study we measure physical parameters of the same set of 155 M- and X-class solar flares observed with AIA/SDO as analyzed in Paper I, by performing a differential emission measure analysis to determine the flare peak emission measure EMp, peak temperature T-p, electron density n(p), and thermal energy E-th, in addition to the spatial scales L, areas A, and volumes V measured in Paper I. The parameter ranges for M- and X-class flares are log(EMp) = 47.0-50.5, T-p = 5.0-17.8 MK, n(p) = 4 x 10(9)-9 x 10(11) cm(-3), and thermal energies of E-th = 1.6x10(28)-1.1x10(32) erg. We find that these parameters obey the Rosner-Tucker-Vaiana (RTV) scaling law T-p(2) proportional to n(p)L and H proportional to (TL-2)-L-7/2 during the peak time t(p) of the flare density n(p), when energy balance between the heating rate H and the conductive and radiative loss rates is achieved for a short instant and thus enables the applicability of the RTV scaling law. The application of the RTV scaling law predicts power-law distributions for all physical parameters, which we demonstrate with numerical Monte Carlo simulations as well as with analytical calculations. A consequence of the RTV law is also that we can retrieve the size distribution of heating rates, for which we find N(H) proportional to H-1.8, which is consistent with the magnetic flux distribution N(Phi) proportional to Phi(-1.85) observed by Parnell et al. and the heating flux scaling law F-H proportional to HL proportional to B/L of Schrijver et al.. The fractal-diffusive self-organized criticality model in conjunction with the RTV scaling law reproduces the observed power-law distributions and their slopes for all geometrical and physical parameters and can be used to predict the size distributions for other flare data sets, instruments, and detection algorithms.

The joint Japan/US/UK Hinode mission includes the first large-aperture visible-light solar telescope flown in space. One component of the Focal Plane Package of that telescope is a precision spectro-polarimeter designed to measure full Stokes spectra with the intent of using those spectra to infer the magnetic-field vector at high precision in the solar photosphere. This article describes the characteristics of the flight hardware of the Hinode Spectro-Polarimeter, and summarizes its in-flight performance.

The three telescopes on Hinode, a highly sophisticated solar observational satellite, must be able to simultaneously observe the same point on the sun in order to ascertain data on the physical mechanisms for activity and heating in the solar atmosphere. To fulfill this mission requirement, the telescopes must remain co-aligned to within 2.0 arcsec under the temperature fluctuations the satellite experiences while orbiting the earth. Hinode consists of two modules and a connecting structure. Most of the structural elements are made of CFRP in order to suppress thermal deformations. In particular, the laminate configuration of the CFRP in the module holding the telescopes was carefully designed in terms of not only its stiffness and strength but also its coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity. A thermal deformation analysis was performed to estimate the co-alignment drift on-orbit and a thermal deformation test was conducted to verify the estimation. The results showed that the structural design would sufficiently suppress the drift on-orbit. Measurements on-orbit were conducted using the image of the sun, and the measured drift was in good agreement with the estimation.

We present a design progress of the Solar UV-Vis-IR Telescope (SUVIT) aboard the next Japanese solar mission SOLAR-C. SUVIT has an aperture diameter of similar to 1.4 m for achieving spectro-polarimetric observations with spatial and temporal resolution exceeding the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT). We have studied structural and thermal designs of the optical telescope as well as the optical interface between the telescope and the focal plane instruments. The focal plane instruments are installed into two packages, filtergraph and spectrograph packages. The spectropolarimeter is the instrument dedicated to accurate polarimetry in the three spectrum windows at 525 nm, 854 nm, and 1083 nm for observing magnetic fields at both the photospheric and chromospheric layers. We made optical design of the spectrograph accommodating the conventional slit spectrograph and the integral field unit (IFU) for two-dimensional coverage. We are running feasibility study of the IFU using fiber arrays consisting of rectangular cores.

After observing the quiet Sun during a long and deep minimum, Hinode's observing priority is now the active Sun, i.e., flares and active regions. Because of its small field-of-view instruments and telemetry restrictions, capturing major flares with good observing coverage needs challenging efforts on operation plannings for Hinode and we have been using the latest available AIA and HMI full-Sun images for targeting. Also, capturing the initial phase of large-scale emerging flux activities is not easy for Hinode without having the forecast of flux emergence before they are visible on the surface. Nevertheless, Hinode has some good examples of observations of such events. In this paper, we briefly discuss two specific observations X-class flares in March 2012 and a large-scale flux emergence in December 2009. The Stokes polarimetry data for the flares presented in this paper reveals significant gas flows along the neutral line of the sheared magnetic distributions and the change of magnetic field inclination at the areas where penumbral development and disappearance was observed with the occurrence of the flares. The flux emergence and the sunspot formation presented were well monitored by the Hinode three telescopes from the beginning through the end of the emergence, Of particular interest is the finding of a precursory signature in the chromosphere preceding the appearance of sunspot penumbra. © 2013 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

The solar outer atmosphere is an extremely dynamic environment characterized by the continuous interplay between the plasma and the magnetic field that generates and permeates it. Such interactions play a fundamental role in hugely diverse astrophysical systems, but occur at scales that cannot be studied outside the solar system. Understanding this complex system requires concerted, simultaneous solar observations from the visible to the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft X-rays, at high spatial resolution (between 0.1'' and 0.3''), at high temporal resolution (on the order of 10 s, i.e., the time scale of chromospheric dynamics), with a wide temperature coverage (0.01 MK to 20 MK, from the chromosphere to the flaring corona), and the capability of measuring magnetic fields through spectropolarimetry at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Simultaneous spectroscopic measurements sampling the entire temperature range are particularly important. These requirements are fulfilled by the Japanese Solar-C mission (Plan B), composed of a spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit with a payload providing a significant improvement of imaging and spectropolarimetric capabilities in the UV, visible, and near-infrared with respect to what is available today and foreseen in the near future. The Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research (LEMUR), described in this paper, is a large VUV telescope feeding a scientific payload of high-resolution imaging spectrographs and cameras. LEMUR consists of two major components: a VUV solar telescope with a 30 cm diameter mirror and a focal length of 3.6 m, and a focal-plane package composed of VUV spectrometers covering six carefully chosen wavelength ranges between 170 and 1270 . The LEMUR slit covers 280'' on the Sun with 0.14'' per pixel sampling. In addition, LEMUR is capable of measuring mass flows velocities (line shifts) down to 2 km s (-aEuro parts per thousand 1) or better. LEMUR has been proposed to ESA as the European contribution to the Solar C mission.

Hinode observations have revealed intermittent recurrent plasma ejections/jets in the chromosphere. These are interpreted as a result of non-perfectly anti-parallel magnetic reconnection, i.e., component reconnection, between a twisted magnetic flux tube and the pre-existing coronal/chromospheric magnetic field, though the fundamental physics of component reconnection is not revealed. In this paper, we experimentally reproduced the magnetic configuration and investigated the dynamics of plasma ejections, heating, and wave generation triggered by component reconnection in the chromosphere. We set plasma parameters as in the chromosphere (density 10(14) cm(-3), temperature 5-10 eV, i. e., (5-10) x 10(4) K, and reconnection magnetic field 200 G) using argon plasma. Our experiment shows bi-directional outflows with the speed of 5 km s(-1) at maximum, ion heating in the downstream area over 30 eV, and magnetic fluctuations mainly at 5-10 mu s period. We succeeded in qualitatively reproducing chromospheric jets, but quantitatively, we still have some differences between observations and experiments such as in jet velocity, total energy, and wave frequency. Some of them can be explained by the scale gap between solar and laboratory plasma, while the others are probably due to the difference in microscopy and macroscopy, collisionality, and the degree of ionization, which have not been achieved in our experiment.

We present observations of a precursory signature that would be helpful for understanding the formation process of sunspot penumbrae. The Hinode Solar Optical Telescope successfully captured the entire evolution of a sunspot from the pore to a large well-developed sunspot with penumbra in an emerging flux region appearing in NOAA Active Region 11039. We found an annular zone (width 3 ''-5 '') surrounding the umbra (pore) in Ca II H images before the penumbra formed around the umbra. The penumbra developed as if to fill the annular zone. The annular zone shows weak magnetogram signals, meaning less magnetic flux or highly inclined fields there. Pre-existing ambient magnetic field islands were distributed at the outer edge of the annular zone and did not come into the zone. There are no strong systematic flow patterns in the zone, but we occasionally observed small magnetic flux patches streaming out. The observations indicate that the annular zone is different from the sunspot moat flow region and that it represents the structure in the chromosphere. We conclude that the annular zone reflects the formation of a magnetic canopy overlying the region surrounding the umbra at the chromospheric level, long before the formation of the penumbra at the photospheric level. The magnetic field structure in the chromosphere needs to be considered in the formation process of the penumbrae.

A large aperture optical telescope is planned for the next Japanese solar mission SOLAR-C as one of major three observing instruments. The optical telescope is designed to provide high-angular-resolution investigation of lower atmosphere from the photosphere to the uppermost chromosphere with enhanced spectroscopic and spectro-polarimetric capability covering a wide wavelength region from 280 nm to 1100 nm. The opto-mechanical and -thermal performance of the telescope is crucial to attain high-quality solar observations and we present a study of optical and structural design of the large aperture space solar telescope, together with conceptual design of its accompanying focal plane instruments: wide-band and narrow-band filtergraphs and a spectro-polarimeter for high spatial and temporal observations in the solar photospheric and chromospheric lines useful for sounding physical condition of dynamical phenomena.

We present an instrumental design of one major solar observation payload planned for the SOLAR-C mission: the Solar Ultra-violet Visible and near IR observing Telescope (SUVIT). The SUVIT is designed to provide high-angular-resolution investigation of the lower solar atmosphere, from the photosphere to the uppermost chromosphere, with enhanced spectroscopic and spectro-polarimetric capability in wide wavelength regions from 280 nm (Mg II h&k lines) to 1100 nm (He I 1083 nm line) with 1.5 m class aperture and filtergraphic and spectrographic instruments.

We newly found a precursory signature of sunspot penumbral formation in Ca II H images. The precursor is a dark annular zone (width 3"-5") around the umbra (pore), which was formed soon after the pore formation and existed until the penumbral formation. The penumbra was developed as if to fill the annular zone. Preexisting ambient magnetic field islands were moved to be distributed at the outer edge of the annular zone and did not come into the zone. The observations indicate that the annular zone is different from sunspot moat flow region and that the zone is visible only in chromospheric Ca II H images, not in photospheric G-band images. We conclude that the annular zone reflects the formation of a magnetic canopy overlying the region surrounding the umbra at the chromospheric level, much before the formation of the penumbra at the photospheric level. We can predict the region and size of the penumbra, by looking at the appearance of dark zone around pores.

We studied 16 sunspots with different sizes and shapes using the observations with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope. The ratio of G-band and Ca II H images reveal rich structures both within the umbra and penumbra of most spots. The striking features are the compact blob at the foot point of the umbra side of the penumbral fibrils with disk center-limb side asymmetry. In this paper, we present properties of these features using the spectropolarimetry and images in G-band, Ca II and blue filters. We discuss the results using the contemporary models of the sunspots.

One of the biggest challenges in heliophysics is to decipher the magnetic structure of the solar chromosphere. The importance of measuring the chromospheric magnetic field is due to both the key role the chromosphere plays in energizing and structuring the outer solar atmosphere and the inability of extrapolation of photospheric fields to adequately describe this key boundary region. Over the last few years, significant progress has been made in the spectral line formation of UV lines as well as the MHD modeling of the solar atmosphere. It is found that the Hanle effect in the Lyman-alpha line (121.567 nm) is a most promising diagnostic tool for weaker magnetic fields in the chromosphere and transition region. Based on this groundbreaking research, we propose the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) to NASA as a sounding rocket experiment, for making the first measurement of the linear polarization produced by scattering processes and the Hanle effect in the Lyman-alpha line (121.567 nm), and making the first exploration of the magnetic field in the upper chromosphere and transition region of the Sun. The CLASP instrument consists of a Cassegrain telescope, a rotating 1/2-wave plate, a dual-beam spectrograph assembly with a grating working as a beam splitter, and an identical pair of reflective polarization analyzers each equipped with a CCD camera. We propose to launch CLASP in December 2014.

Sunspot light bridges (LBs)-long bright lanes appearing in umbra-sometimes show dynamical behaviors such as plasma ejections, brightenings, and fast gas flows in the photosphere and lower chromosphere, but we have not understood what causes these dynamics. The Hinode Solar Optical Telescope successfully captured the entire period of the evolution of an LB formed at the southeast of the well-developed sunspot in NOAA Active Region 10953, allowing us to track how magnetic and dynamical properties change with time for 3.5 days. The LB produced chromospheric upward ejections intermittently and recurrently on 2007 April 30, and fewer upward ejections were observed on May 1. We found that G-band intensity features morphologically changed from cellar or patchy on April 30 to filamentary on May 1, although there were small changes in the magnetic flux density and inclination. This suggests that the chromospheric activity is related to the change of morphology in the photosphere. Fast gas flows and a pair of strong enhanced vertical electrical currents were also observed in the photosphere after the filamentary structures were dominant. The end of a large H alpha filament (or prominence) was extended very close to the LB on May 1, suggesting that the filamentary structures formed along the LB may be magnetically connected to the large H alpha filament and the gas flows may originate far from the LB region, although other mechanisms cannot be ruled out.