坂尾 太郎

Heliophysics 2024 Decadal Whitepapers

We have developed an advanced UV spectropolarimeter called Chromospheric LAyer SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP2), aimed at achieving very high accuracy measurements (<0.1% at 3 sigma) of the linear (Q/I and U/I) and circular (V/I) polarizations of the Mg II h and k lines (280 nm). CLASP2 was launched on board a NASA sounding rocket on April 11, 2019. It successfully detected the full Stokes vector in an active-region plage and in the quiet Sun near the limb across the Mg II h and k lines for the first time. To verify the polarization characteristics of CLASP2, the response matrix is estimated by combining the results obtained from the preflight calibration on the ground, with the results of the inflight calibration acquired at the solar-disk center. We find that the response matrix of CLASP2 in the Mg II h and k lines is notably close to an ideal response matrix, i.e., the scale factor and the crosstalk terms are close to 1 and 0, respectively. Moreover, the uncertainty of each Stokes parameter estimated by the repeatability of the measurements is verified to be within the required tolerance. Based on our investigation, we conclude that CLASP2 achieves 0.1% polarization accuracy at a 3 sigma level.

Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved. Routine ultraviolet imaging of the Sun's upper atmosphere shows the spectacular manifestation of solar activity; yet, we remain blind to its main driver, the magnetic field. Here, we report unprecedented spectropolarimetric observations of an active region plage and its surrounding enhanced network, showing circular polarization in ultraviolet (Mg ii h & k and Mn i) and visible (Fe i) lines. We infer the longitudinal magnetic field from the photosphere to the very upper chromosphere. At the top of the plage chromosphere, the field strengths reach more than 300 G, strongly correlated with the Mg ii k line core intensity and the electron pressure. This unique mapping shows how the magnetic field couples the different atmospheric layers and reveals the magnetic origin of the heating in the plage chromosphere.

The Yohkoh data on the site and mechanism of magnetic energy transformation into kinetic and thermal energies of a superhot plasma at the Sun require new models of reconnection under conditions of highly-anomalous resistivity, which are similar to that one observed in toroidal devices performed to study turbulent heating of a collisionless plasma, and its anomalous heat-conductive cooling. The models make intelligible the observed properties of the three-dimensional reconnection in solar flares. © 2002 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Using a high-speed CMOS sensor, we realized a photon-counting-type imaging-spectrometer in the soft X-ray range for studying the solar corona. The key technology enabling this observation is a sensor with the following capabilities. The sensor is pixelized with a pixel size of 11μm and a pixel array of 2048 pixels × 2048 pixels. Furthermore, the sensor is sensitive to X-rays ranging from ∼0.5 keV to ∼5 keV. The sensor outputs a signal that is proportional to the energy of the incident X-rays. The signal generated by a single X-ray photon does not spread across an area of more than 3 pixels × 3 pixels, in which case signal loss does not occur. The readout noise of the sensor is 2.1 electrons at the 1-sigma level. The sensor can perform continuous exposure at a rate of 1000 times per second for an area of 100 pixels × 2048 pixels. This high-speed readout capability is a special requirement for observation of the solar corona, because energetic solar phenomena, e.g., solar flares, have lifetimes ranging from several minutes to several tens of minutes. We evaluated the above capabilities for the back-illuminated Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensor developed by Gpixel, “GSENSE400-BSI UV” using an 55Fe X-ray source, and confirmed the capability of this CMOS sensor to be sufficient for observations of the solar corona.

© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We succeeded in observing two large spicules simultaneously with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. One is a spicule seen in the IRIS Mg ii slit-jaw images and AIA 304 images (Mg ii/304 spicule). The other one is a spicule seen in the 100 GHz images obtained with ALMA (100 GHz spicule). Although the 100 GHz spicule overlapped with the Mg ii/304 spicule in the early phase, it did not show any corresponding structures in the IRIS Mg ii and AIA 304 images after the early phase. It suggests that the spicules are individual events and do not have a physical relationship. To obtain the physical parameters of the 100 GHz spicule, we estimate the optical depths as a function of temperature and density using two different methods. One is using the observed brightness temperature by assuming a filling factor, and the other is using an emission model for the optical depth. As a result of comparing them, the kinetic temperature of the plasma and the number density of ionized hydrogen in the 100 GHz spicule are ∼6800 K and 2.2 × 1010 cm-3. The estimated values can explain the absorbing structure in the 193 image, which appear as a counterpart of the 100 GHz spicule. These results suggest that the 100 GHz spicule presented in this Letter is classified to a macrospicule without a hot sheath in former terminology.

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Hinode is Japan's third solar mission following Hinotori (1981-1982) and Yohkoh (1991-2001): it was launched on 2006 September 22 and is in operation currently. Hinode carries three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope, the X-Ray Telescope, and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer. These instruments were built under international collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, and its operation has been contributed to by the European Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Center. After describing the satellite operations and giving a performance evaluation of the three instruments, reviews are presented on major scientific discoveries by Hinode in the first eleven years (one solar cycle long) of its operation. This review article concludes with future prospects for solar physics research based on the achievements of Hinode.

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) is a suborbital rocket experiment that on 2015 September 3 measured the linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Lyα line of the solar disk radiation. The line-center photons of this spectral line radiation mostly stem from the chromosphere-corona transition region (TR). These unprecedented spectropolarimetric observations revealed an interesting surprise, namely that there is practically no center-to-limb variation (CLV) in the Q/I line-center signals. Using an analytical model, we first show that the geometric complexity of the corrugated surface that delineates the TR has a crucial impact on the CLV of the Q/I and U/I line-center signals. Second, we introduce a statistical description of the solar atmosphere based on a 3D model derived from a state-of-the-art radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulation. Each realization of the statistical ensemble is a 3D model characterized by a given degree of magnetization and corrugation of the TR, and for each such realization we solve the full 3D radiative transfer problem taking into account the impact of the CLASP instrument degradation on the calculated polarization signals. Finally, we apply the statistical inference method presented in a previous paper to show that the TR of the 3D model that produces the best agreement with the CLASP observations has a relatively weak magnetic field and a relatively high degree of corrugation. We emphasize that a suitable way to validate or refute numerical models of the upper solar chromosphere is by confronting calculations and observations of the scattering polarization in ultraviolet lines sensitive to the Hanle effect.

© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. On 2015 September 3, the Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP) successfully measured the linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Lyα line of the solar disk radiation, revealing conspicuous spatial variations in the Q/I and U/I signals. Via the Hanle effect, the line-center Q/I and U/I amplitudes encode information on the magnetic field of the chromosphere-corona transition region, but they are also sensitive to the three-dimensional structure of this corrugated interface region. With the help of a simple line-formation model, here we propose a statistical inference method for interpreting the Lyα line-center polarization observed by CLASP.

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. 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.

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. 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.

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. 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 Lyα; 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 Lyα; 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 ∼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.

© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. 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 Lyα 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″ ×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 Alfvén 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.

© 2015 SPIE. High resolution imagery of the solar X-ray corona provides a crucial key to understand dynamics and heating processes of plasma particles there. However, X-ray imagery of the Sun with sub-arcsecond resolution has yet to be conducted due to severe technical difficulty in fabricating precision Wolter mirrors. For future X-ray observations of the Sun's corona, we are attempting to realize precision Wolter mirrors with sub-arcsecond resolution by adopting advanced surface polish and metrology methods based on nano-technology to sector mirrors which consist of a portion of an entire annulus. Following fabrication of the first engineering mirror and subsequent evaluation on the X-ray focusing performance in 2013, the second engineering mirror was made with improvements in both precision polish and metrology introduced. Measurement of focusing performance on the second mirror at SPring-8 synchrotron facility with 8 keV X-rays has demonstrated that the FWHM size of the PSF core reached down to 0.2″ while its HPD (Half Power Diameter) size remained at ∼3″ due to the presence of small-angle scatter just outside of the core. Also, there was notable difference in the focal length between sagittal and meridional focusing which could have been caused by an error in the sag in the meridional direction of <10 nm in the mirror area. Further improvements to overcome these issues have been planned for the next engineering mirror.

High resolution imagery of the solar X-ray corona provides a crucial key to understand dynamics and heating processes of plasma particles there. However, X-ray imagery of the Sun with sub-arcsecond resolution has yet to be conducted due to severe technical difficulty in fabricating precision Wolter mirrors. For future X-ray observations of the Sun's corona, we are attempting to realize precision Wolter mirrors with sub-arcsecond resolution by adopting advanced surface polish and metrology methods based on nano-technology to sector mirrors which consist of a portion of an entire annulus. Following fabrication of the first engineering mirror and subsequent evaluation on the X-ray focusing performance in 2013, the second engineering mirror was made with improvements in both precision polish and metrology introduced. Measurement of focusing performance on the second mirror at SPring-8 synchrotron facility with 8 keV X-rays has demonstrated that the FWHM size of the PSF core reached down to 0.2 '' while its HPD (Half Power Diameter) size remained at similar to 3 '' due to the presence of small-angle scatter just outside of the core. Also, there was notable difference in the focal length between sagittal and meridional focusing which could have been caused by an error in the sag in the meridional direction of <10 nm in the mirror area. Further improvements to overcome these issues have been planned for the next engineering mirror.

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.

Particle acceleration is one of the most significant features that are ubiquitous among space and cosmic plasmas. It is most prominent during flares in the case of the Sun, with which huge amounts of electromagnetic radiation and high-energy particles are expelled into the interplanetary space through acceleration of plasma particles in the corona. Though it has been well understood that energies of flares are supplied by the mechanism called magnetic reconnection based on the observations in X-rays and EUV with space telescopes, where and how in the flaring magnetic field plasmas are accelerated has remained unknown due to the low plasma density in the flaring corona. We here report the first observational identification of the energetic non-thermal electrons around the point of the ongoing magnetic reconnection (X-point), with the location of the X-point identified by soft X-ray imagery and the localized presence of non-thermal electrons identified from imaging-spectroscopic data at two microwave frequencies. Considering the existence of the reconnection outflows that carries both plasma particles and magnetic fields out from the X-point, our identified non-thermal microwave emissions around the X-point indicate that the electrons are accelerated around the reconnection X-point. Additionally, the plasma around the X-point was also thermally heated up to 10 MK. The estimated reconnection rate of this event is ∼0.017. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) onboard the Hinode satellite is an X-ray imager that observes the solar corona with the capability of diagnosing coronal temperatures from less than 1 MK to more than 10 MK. To make full use of this capability, Narukage et al. (Solar Phys. 269, 169, 2011) determined the thickness of each of the X-ray focal-plane analysis filters based on calibration measurements from the ground-based end-to-end test. However, in their paper, the calibration of the thicker filters for observations of active regions and flares, namely the med-Be, med-Al, thick-Al and thick-Be filters, was insufficient due to the insufficient X-ray flux used in the measurements. In this work, we recalibrate those thicker filters using quiescent active region data taken with multiple filters of XRT. On the basis of our updated calibration results, we present the revised coronal-temperature-diagnostic capability of XRT. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

© 2014 SPIE. The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) is a sounding-rocket instrument currently under development at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) as a part of an international collaboration. CLASP™s optics are composed of a Cassegrain telescope and a spectro-polarimeter which are designed to achieve an unprecedentedly accurate polarization measurement of the Ly-α line at 121.6nm emitted from the solar upper-chromosphere and transition region. CLASP™s first flight is scheduled for August 2015. Reaching such accuracy requires a careful alignment of the optical elements to optimize the image quality at 121.6 nm. However Ly-α is absorbed by air and therefore the optics alignment has to be done under vacuum condition which makes any experiment difficult. To bypass this issue, we proposed to align the telescope and the spectrograph separately in visible light. Hence we present our alignment procedure for both telescope and spectro-polarimeter. We will explain details about the telescope preliminary alignment before mirrors coating, which was done in April 2014, present the telescope combined optical performance and compare them to CLASP tolerance. Then we will present details about an experiment designed to confirm our alignment procedure for the CLASP spectro-polarimeter. We will discuss the resulting image quality achieved during this experiment and the lessons learned.

© 2014 SPIE. We present overview and development activities of a soft X-ray photon-counting spectroscopic imager for the solar corona that we conceive as a possible scientific payload for future space solar missions including Japanese Solar-C. The soft X-ray imager will employ a Wolter I grazing-incidence sector mirror with which images of the corona (1 MK to beyond 10 MK) will be taken with the highest-ever angular resolution (0.5"/pixel for a focal length of 4 m) as a solar Xray telescope. In addition to high-resolution imagery, we attempt to implement photon-counting capability for the imager by employing a backside-illuminated CMOS image sensor as the focal-plane device. Imaging-spectroscopy of the X-ray corona will be performed for the first time in the energy range from ∼0.5 keV up to 10 keV. The imaging-spectroscopic observations with the soft X-ray imager will provide a noble probe for investigating mechanism(s) of magnetic reconnection and generation of supra-thermal (non-thermal) electrons associated with flares. Ongoing development activities in Japan towards the photon-counting imager is described with emphasis on that for sub-arcsecond-resolution grazing-incidence mirrors.

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. © 2013 The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

We present science and development activities of the soft X-ray photon-counting spectroscopic imager for the solar corona that we conceive as a possible scientific payload for the Japanese Solar-C mission. The imager employs a grazing-incidence sector mirror of Wolter-I type with which images of the corona are to be taken in a wide temperature range (1 MK to beyond 10 MK) with the highest-ever angular resolution (0.5' '/pixel for a focal length of 4 m) as an Xray telescope for the Sun. Moreover, by employing a back-thinned CMOS image sensor as the focal-plane device, we attempmt to implement photon-counting capability with which imaging-spectroscopy of the X-ray corona will be performed for the first time, in the energy range from ∼0.5 keV up to 10 keV. The imaging-spectroscopic observations will provide totally-new information on mechanism(s) for magnetic reconnection, generation of supra-thermal electrons in the reconnecting magnetic structure during flares, and for the generation of hot coronal plasmas (heated beyond a few MK) which may be responsible for the formation of the hot cores of solar active regions. © 2013 SPIE.

Solar-C is the third generation solar observatory led by JAXA. The accepted 'Plan-B' payload calls for a radiation-hard solar-staring photon-counting x-ray spectrometer. CMOS APS technology offers advantages over CCDs for such an application such as increased radiation hardness and high frame rate (instrument target of 1000 fps). Looking towards the solution of a bespoke CMOS APS, this paper reports the x-ray spectroscopy performance, concentrating on charge collection efficiency and split event analysis, of two baseline e2v CMOS APSs not designed for x-ray performance, the EV76C454 and the Ocean Colour Imager (OCI) test array. The EV76C454 is an industrial 5T APS designed for machine vision, available back and front illuminated. The OCI test arrays have varying pixel design across the chips, but are 4T, back illuminated and have thin low-resistivity and thick high-resistivity variants. The OCI test arrays' pixel variants allow understanding of how pixel design can affect x-ray performance. © 2012 SPIE.

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.

The magnetic field plays a crucial role in the chromosphere and the transition region, and our poor empirical knowledge of the magnetic field in the upper chromosphere and transition region is a major impediment to advancing the understanding of the solar atmosphere. The Hanle effect promises to be a valuable alternative to Zeeman effect as a method of measuring the magnetic field in the chromosphere and transition region; it is sensitive to weaker magnetic fields, and also sensitive to tangled, unresolved field structures.CLASP is a sounding rocket experiment that aims to observe the Hanle effect polarization of the Lyman alpha (1215.67 angstrom) line in the solar chromosphere and transition region, and prove the usefulness of this technique in placing constraints on the magnetic field strength and orientation in the low plasma-beta region of the solar atmosphere. The Ly-alpha line has been chosen because it is a chromospheric/transition-region line, and because the Hanle effect polarization of this line is predicted to be sensitive to 10250 Gauss, encompassing the range of interest. The CLASP instrument is designed to measure linear polarization in the Ly-alpha line with a polarization sensitivity of 0.1%. The instrument is currently funded for development. The optical design of the instrument has been finalized, and an extensive series of component-level tests are underway to validate the design.

We report science and development activities of the X-ray/EUV telescope for the Japanese Solar-C mission whose projected launch around 2019. The telescope consists of a package of (a) a normal-incidence (NI) EUV telescope and (b) a grazing-incidence (GI) soft X-ray telescope. The NI telescope chiefly provides images of low corona (whose temperature 1 MK or even lower) with ultra-high angular resolution (0.2-0.3/pixel) in 3 wavelength bands (304, 171, and 94 angstroms). on the other hand, the GI telescope provides images of the corona with a wide temperature coverage (1 MK to beyond 10 MK) with the highest-ever angular resolution (̃0.5/pixel) as a soft X-ray coronal imager. The set of NI and GI telescopes should provide crucial information for establishing magnetic and gas-dynamic connection between the corona and the lower atmosphere of the Sun which is essential for understanding heating of, and plasma activities in, the corona. Moreover, we attempt to implement photon-counting capability for the GI telescope with which imaging-spectroscopy of the X-ray corona will be performed for the first time, in the energy range from ̃0.5 keV up to 10 keV. The imaging-spectroscopic observations will provide totally-new information on mechanism(s) for the generation of hot coronal plasmas (heated beyond a few MK), those for magnetic reconnection, and even generation of supra-Thermal electrons associated with flares. An overview of instrument outline and science for the X-ray photoncounting telescope are presented, together with ongoing development activities in Japan towards soft X-ray photoncounting observations, focusing on high-speed X-ray CMOS detector and sub-Arcsecond-resolution GI mirror. © 2012 SPIE.

The solar chromosphere is an important boundary, through which all of the plasma, magnetic fields and energy in the corona and solar wind are supplied. Since the Zeeman splitting is typically smaller than the Doppler line broadening in the chromosphere and transition region, it is not effective to explore weak magnetic fields. However, this is not the case for the Hanle effect, when we have an instrument with high polarization sensitivity (similar to 0.1%). "Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha SpectroPolarimeter (CLASP)" is the sounding rocket experiment to detect linear polarization produced by the Hanle effect in Lyman-alpha line (121.567 nm) and to make the first direct measurement of magnetic fields in the upper chromosphere and lower transition region. To achieve the high sensitivity of similar to 0.1% within a rocket flight (5 minutes) in Lyman-alpha line, which is easily absorbed by materials, we design the optical system mainly with reflections. The CLASP consists of a classical Cassegrain telescope, a polarimeter and a spectrometer. The polarimeter consists of a rotating 1/2-wave plate and two reflecting polarization analyzers. One of the analyzer also works as a polarization beam splitter to give us two orthogonal linear polarizations simultaneously. The CLASP is planned to be launched in 2014 summer.

We report instrument outline as well as science of the photon-counting soft X-ray telescope that we have been studying as a possible scientific payload for the Japanese Solar-C mission whose projected launch around 2019. Soft X-rays (similar to 1-10 keV) from the solar corona include rich information on (1) possible mechanism(s) for heating the bright core of active regions seen in soft X-rays (namely, the hottest portion in the non-flaring corona), (2) dynamics and magneto-hydrodynamic structures associated with magnetic reconnection processes ongoing in flares, and even (3) generation of supra-thermal distributions of coronal plasmas associated with flares. Nevertheless, imaging-spectroscopic investigation of the soft X-ray corona has so far remained unexplored due to difficulty in the instrumentation for achieving this aim. With the advent of recent remarkable progress in CMOS-APS detector technology, the photon-counting X-ray telescope will be capable of, in addition to conventional photon-integration type exposures, performing imaging-spectroscopic investigation on active regions and flares, thus providing, for example, detailed temperature information (beyond the so-far-utilized filter-ratio temperature) at each spatial point of the observing target. The photon-counting X-ray telescope will emply a Wolter type I optics with a piece of a segmented mirror whose focal length 4 meters, combined with a focal-plane CMOS-APS detector (0.4-0.5"/pixel) whose frame read-out rate required to be as high as 1000 fps.

Two mission concepts (plan A: out-of-ecliptic mission and plan B: high resolution spectroscopic mission) have been studied for the next Japanese-led solar mission Solar-C, which will follow the scientific success of the Hinode mission. The both mission concepts are concluded as equally important and attractive for the promotion of space solar physics. In the meantime we also had to make efforts for prioritizing the two options, in order to proceed to next stage of requesting the launch of Solar-C mission at the earliest opportunity. This paper briefly describes the two mission concepts and the current status on our efforts for prioritizing the two options. More details are also described for the plan B option as the first-priority Solar-C mission. The latest report from the Solar-C mission concept studies was documented as "Interim Report on the Solar-C Mission Concept."

The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) onboard the Hinode satellite is an X-ray imager that observes the solar corona with unprecedentedly high angular resolution (consistent with its 1" pixel size). XRT has nine X-ray analysis filters with different temperature responses. One of the most significant scientific features of this telescope is its capability of diagnosing coronal temperatures from less than 1 MK to more than 10 MK, which has never been accomplished before. To make full use of this capability, accurate calibration of the coronal temperature response of XRT is indispensable and is presented in this article. The effect of on-orbit contamination is also taken into account in the calibration. On the basis of our calibration results, we review the coronal-temperature-diagnostic capability of XRT.

The third Japanese solar-observing satellite, Hinode, has been revolutionalizing our understanding on magneto-plasma activities that prevail all layers of the solar atmosphere, namely, photosphere, chromosphere, transition region and corona. We present highlights of solar observations so far made with Hinode, and discuss possible future solar mission which has been under extensive investigation, based on Hinode results, among Japanese and international solar community.

We present highlights of observations of the Sun with Japanese Hinode mission launched by JAXA in September 2006. The scientific objective of Hinode mission is to observe, in an unprecedented detail, a wide variety of plasma activities in the Sun's corona together with magnetic activities on the photosphere and in the chromosphere, utilizing a suite of three state-of-the-art telescopes; Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS). Since the beginning of the observations late in October 2006, Hinode has been providing ample information on activities of magnetized plasmas in the solar atmosphere some of which are totally new to us. In this article, we present an overview of the Hinode mission as well as some highlights of the observations.

The Hinode (Solar-B) was launched by M-V rocket on 22 September 2006 UT. The telemetry data of the Hinode X-ray Telescope (XRT) showed that the X-ray count rate detected with the XRT had decreased rapidly since the operational heaters on the XRT telescope tube were turned on. This is attributed to the fact that molecular contaminants accumulated onto the CCD with the temperature of &minus;60&ordm;C resulting in the degradation of the XRT sensitivity. We baked the CCD at the temperature of 35&ordm;C in order to remove the contaminants from the CCD surface. However many contaminant spots appeared on the surface. We found that major contaminant source existed in the telescope tube, and identified the contaminants as diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) or DEHP-like organics. The mechanisms to yield the contaminant spots were discussed.

We present a detailed examination of strongly blueshifted emission lines observed with the EUV Imaging Spectrometer on board the Hinode satellite. We found two kinds of blueshifted phenomenon associated with the X3.4 flare that occurred on 2006 December 13. One was related to a plasmoid ejection seen in soft X-rays. It was very bright in all the lines used for the observations. The other was associated with the faint arc-shaped ejection seen in soft X-rays. The soft X-ray ejection is thought to be a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fast-mode shock wave. This is therefore the first spectroscopic observation of an MHD fast-mode shock wave associated with a flare.

We obtained temperature structures in faint coronal features above and near the solar limb with the X-Ray Telescope aboard the Hinode satellite by accurately correcting the scattered X-rays from surrounding bright regions with occulted images during the solar eclipses. Our analysis yields a polar coronal hole temperature of about 1.0 MK and an emission measure in the range of 10(25.5)-10(26.0) cm(-5). In addition, our methods allow us to measure the temperature and emission measure of two distinct quiet-Sun structures: radial (plume-like) structures near the boundary of the coronal-hole and diffuse quiet Sun regions at mid-latitudes. The radial structures appear to have increasing temperature with height during the first 100 Mm, and constant temperatures above 100 Mm. For the diffuse quiet-Sun region the temperatures are the highest just above the limb, and appear to decrease with height. These differences may be due to different magnetic configurations.

The X-ray Telescope (XRT) aboard the Hinode satellite is a grazing incidence X-ray imager equipped with a 2048×2048 CCD. The XRT has 1 arcsec pixels with a wide field of view of 34×34 arcmin. It is sensitive to plasmas with a wide temperature range from <∈1 to 30 MK, allowing us to obtain TRACE-like low-temperature images as well as Yohkoh/SXT-like high-temperature images. The spacecraft Mission Data Processor (MDP) controls the XRT through sequence tables with versatile autonomous functions such as exposure control, region-of-interest tracking, flare detection, and flare location identification. Data are compressed either with DPCM or JPEG, depending on the purpose. This results in higher cadence and/or wider field of view for a given telemetry bandwidth. With a focus adjust mechanism, a higher resolution of Gaussian focus may be available on-axis. This paper follows the first instrument paper for the XRT (Golub et al., Solar Phys. 243, 63, 2007) and discusses the design and measured performance of the X-ray CCD camera for the XRT and its control system with the MDP. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

The formation of the slow solar wind has been debated for many years. In this Letter we show evidence of persistent outflow at the edges of an active region as measured by the EUV Imaging Spectrometer on board Hinode. The Doppler velocity ranged between 20 and 50 km s-1 and was consistent with a steady flow seen in the X-Ray Telescope. The latter showed steady, pulsing outflowing material and some transverse motions of the loops. We analyze the magnetic field around the active region and produce a coronal magnetic field model. We determine from, the latter that the outflow speeds adjusted for line-of-sight effects can reach over 100 km s-1. We can interpret this outflow as expansion of loops that lie over the active region, which may either reconnect with neighboring large-scale loops or are likely to open to the interplanetary space. This material constitutes at least part of the slow solar wind. © 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

We investigate possible diagnostics of the thermal structure of coronal loops from Hinode/XRT observations made with several filters. We consider the observation of an active region with five filters. We study various possible combinations of filter data to optimize for sensitivity to thermal structure and for signal enhancement.

Coronal magnetic fields are dynamic, and field lines may misalign, reassemble, and release energy by means of magnetic reconnection. Giant releases may generate solar flares and coronal mass ejections and, on a smaller scale, produce x-ray jets. Hinode observations of polar coronal holes reveal that x-ray jets have two distinct velocities: one near the Alfvén speed (∼800 kilometers per second) and another near the sound speed (200 kilometers per second). Many more jets were seen than have been reported previously; we detected an average of 10 events per hour up to these speeds, whereas previous observations documented only a handful per day with lower average speeds of 200 kilometers per second. The x-ray jets are about 2 × 103 to 2 × 104 kilometers wide and 1 × 105 kilometers long and last from 100 to 2500 seconds. The large number of events, coupled with the high velocities of the apparent outflows, indicates that the jets may contribute to the high-speed solar wind.

The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona is a long-standing puzzle in solar physics. Hinode observations show the ubiquitous presence of chromospheric anemone jets outside sunspots in active regions. They are typically 3 to 7 arc seconds = 2000 to 5000 kilometers long and 0.2 to 0.4 arc second = 150 to 300 kilometers wide, and their velocity is 10 to 20 kilometers per second. These small jets have an inverted Y-shape, similar to the shape of x-ray anemone jets in the corona. These features imply that magnetic reconnection similar to that in the corona is occurring at a much smaller spatial scale throughout the chromosphere and suggest that the heating of the solar chromosphere and corona may be related to small-scale ubiquitous reconnection.

The determination of the fine thermal structure of the solar corona is fundamental to constraining the coronal heating mechanisms. The Hinode X-ray Telescope collected images of the solar corona in different passbands, thus providing temperature diagnostics through energy ratios. By combining different filters to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio, we observed a coronal active region in five filters, revealing a highly thermally structured corona: very fine structures in the core of the region and on a larger scale further away. We observed continuous thermal distribution along the coronal loops, as well as entangled structures, and variations of thermal structuring along the line of sight.

The Sun continuously expels a huge amount of ionized material into interplanetary space as the solar wind. Despite its influence on the heliospheric environment, the origin of the solar wind has yet to be well identified. In this paper, we report Hinode X-ray Telescope observations of a solar active region. At the edge of the active region, located adjacent to a coronal hole, a pattern of continuous outflow of soft-x-ray-emitting plasmas was identified emanating along apparently open magnetic field lines and into the upper corona. Estimates of temperature and density for the outflowing plasmas suggest a mass loss rate that amounts to similar to 1/4 of the total mass loss rate of the solar wind. These outflows may be indicative of one of the solar wind sources at the Sun.

We observed X-ray bright points (XBPs) in a quiet region of the Sun with the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) aboard the Hinode satellite on 2006 December 19. XRT's high-resolution X-ray images revealed many XBPs with complicated structure and evolving dramatically with time. Almost all of the dynamic eruptions in the quiet region were composed of XBPs, and they had either loop or multiloop shapes, as is observed in larger flares. Brightening XBPs had strong magnetic fields with opposite polarities near their footpoints. While we have found a possible example of associated magnetic cancellation, other XBPs brighten and fade without any associated movement of the photospheric magnetic field.

Hinode/SOHO campaign 7197 is the most extensive study of polar jet formation and evolution from within both the north and south polar coronal holes so far. For the first time, this study showed that the appearance of X-ray jets in the solar coronal holes occurs at very high frequency - about 60 jets d(-1) on average. Using observations collected by the X-Ray Telescope on Hinode, a number of physical parameters from a large sample of jets were statistically studied. We measured the apparent outward velocity, the height, the width and the lifetime of the jets. In our sample, all of these parameters show peaked distributions with maxima at 160 km s(-1) for the outward velocity, 5 x 10(4) km for the height, 8 x 10(3) km for the width, and about 10 min for the lifetime of the jets. We also present the first statistical study of jet transverse motions, which obtained transverse velocities of 0 - 35 km s(-1). These values were obtained on the basis of a larger (in terms of frequency) and better sampled set of events than what was previously statistically studied (Shimojo et a]. 1996, PASJ, 48, 123). The results were made possible by the unique characteristics of XRT. We describe the methods used to determine the characteristics and set some future goals. We also show that despite some possible selection effects, jets preferably occur inside the polar coronal holes.