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Solar Physics

, Volume 249, Issue 2, pp 167–196 | Cite as

The Solar Optical Telescope for the Hinode Mission: An Overview

  • S. Tsuneta
  • K. Ichimoto
  • Y. Katsukawa
  • S. Nagata
  • M. Otsubo
  • T. Shimizu
  • Y. Suematsu
  • M. Nakagiri
  • M. Noguchi
  • T. Tarbell
  • A. Title
  • R. Shine
  • W. Rosenberg
  • C. Hoffmann
  • B. Jurcevich
  • G. Kushner
  • M. Levay
  • B. Lites
  • D. Elmore
  • T. Matsushita
  • N. Kawaguchi
  • H. Saito
  • I. Mikami
  • L. D. Hill
  • J. K. Owens
Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

The Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard the Hinode satellite (formerly called Solar-B) consists of the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) and the Focal Plane Package (FPP). The OTA is a 50-cm diffraction-limited Gregorian telescope, and the FPP includes the narrowband filtergraph (NFI) and the broadband filtergraph (BFI), plus the Stokes Spectro-Polarimeter (SP). The SOT provides unprecedented high-resolution photometric and vector magnetic images of the photosphere and chromosphere with a very stable point spread function and is equipped with an image-stabilization system with performance better than 0.01 arcsec rms. Together with the other two instruments on Hinode (the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)), the SOT is poised to address many fundamental questions about solar magnetohydrodynamics. This paper provides an overview; the details of the instrument are presented in a series of companion papers.

Keywords

Solar-B Hinode Sun: magnetic fields Sun: photosphere Sun: chromosphere Sun: MHD 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • S. Tsuneta
    • 1
  • K. Ichimoto
    • 1
  • Y. Katsukawa
    • 1
  • S. Nagata
    • 1
  • M. Otsubo
    • 1
  • T. Shimizu
    • 1
  • Y. Suematsu
    • 1
  • M. Nakagiri
    • 1
  • M. Noguchi
    • 1
  • T. Tarbell
    • 2
  • A. Title
    • 2
  • R. Shine
    • 2
  • W. Rosenberg
    • 2
  • C. Hoffmann
    • 2
  • B. Jurcevich
    • 2
  • G. Kushner
    • 2
  • M. Levay
    • 2
  • B. Lites
    • 3
  • D. Elmore
    • 3
  • T. Matsushita
    • 4
  • N. Kawaguchi
    • 4
  • H. Saito
    • 4
  • I. Mikami
    • 4
  • L. D. Hill
    • 5
  • J. K. Owens
    • 5
  1. 1.National Astronomical Observatory of JapanMitakaJapan
  2. 2.Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics LaboratoryPalo AltoUSA
  3. 3.High Altitude ObservatoryNCARBoulderUSA
  4. 4.Communication Systems CenterMitsubishi Electric Corp.AmagasakiJapan
  5. 5.Space Science Office, VP62NASA Marshall Space Flight CenterHuntsvilleUSA

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