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T. E. Berger, A. M. Title, T. D. Tarbell (Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory), B. W. Lites, D. F. Elmore (High Altitude Observatory, NCAR)
Solar-B is a Japanese national space science mission of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) with participation from US and UK research groups. The satellite consists of a 50-cm optical telescope and Focal Plane Package (FPP) designed for high resolution photospheric and chromospheric imaging and spectro-polarimetry as well as two coronal instruments: the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS). Solar-B will be launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit in August of 2004.
A team of Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), High Altitude Observatory, and ISAS personnel are designing the FPP instrument. It consists of a narrow-band tunable birefringent filter system, a wide band interference filter system, and a spectro-polarimeter system for very high sensitivity Stokes polarimetry, all of which will be fabricated at LMSAL. We describe the main science goals of the FPP as well as the current instrument design and performance characteristics.
This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-00014 (Solar-B FPP).