Sounding rocket mission to offer snapshot of sun's magnetic field
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Sounding rocket mission to offer snapshot
of sun's magnetic field
5 October 2021, by Anna Blaustein
CLASP2.1, short for Chromospheric Layer
Spectropolarimeter 2.1, will make these
measurements from a NASA sounding rocket.
Sounding rockets are small rockets that carry
instruments into space for five to ten minutes
before falling back down to Earth. The launch
window for the CLASP2.1 sounding rocket mission
opens at 11:30 a.m. MT on Oct. 5, 2021, at the
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The upcoming flight will be the CLASP instrument's
third trip to space. The current work builds on
previous flights to help scientists better understand
the magnetic field of the sun's chromosphere, so
named for its bright red appearance during total
solar eclipses.
Magnetism drives much of the sun's activity, such
as solar flares. According to David McKenzie,
CLASP2.1 principal investigator and astrophysicist
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama, magnetism is what makes
astrophysics interesting. "That's especially true in
solar physics," he said.
Flares and other activity on the sun's surface can
affect people both on Earth and in space. While
harmful radiation from a flare can't pass through
Earth's atmosphere to physically affect people on
the ground, these bursts of radiation can interfere
The CLASP2.1 experiment team with the rocket. Credit: with radio and GPS signals, and other effects of
Mike Smith, WSMR Visual Information Branch solar activity can prematurely damage metals in
things like oil pipelines and nuclear power plants.
Extremely intense solar activity can even cause
power outages. The massive doses of radiation that
Measuring a magnetic field isn't so hard if you're accompany solar flares also pose a threat to
inside of it. Measuring a magnetic field astronauts outside the protection of Earth's
remotely—whether from across a room, across a magnetic field.
country, or 93 million miles away—is an entirely
different story. But that's exactly what a team of "By understanding the magnetic field in the sun, we
NASA scientists and international collaborators aim can learn to predict when these events are going to
to do with the CLASP2.1 mission: measure the happen," McKenzie said. One day, the information
magnetic field in a critical slice of the sun's could help scientists warn energy companies about
atmosphere called the chromosphere. high-risk events or tell astronauts when it's safe to
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do a spacewalk. NASA/SDO
But right now, we don't know much about the
magnetic field in the chromosphere, the lower layer
of the sun's atmosphere where magnetic forces This splitting of spectral lines also polarizes the
give rise to solar eruptions. That's largely because light, so that individual light waves tend to oscillate
it is so hard to measure. in a certain direction, or even in a circular
(clockwise or counterclockwise) motion. Equipped
Enter CLASP and its subsequent missions, with a specialized filter—essentially a more precise
CLASP2 and CLASP2.1. Since researchers can't version of polarized sunglasses—CLASP2.1 will
measure the magnetic field directly, CLASP was measure this polarization. With this information, the
designed to measure the effects of the magnetic scientists can determine precisely how much the
field in the chromosphere, where super-hot solar chromosphere's magnetic field has split the spectral
material emits ultraviolet light. lines.
The sun-gazing CLASP telescope feeds ultraviolet "The amount of the splitting depends on the
light to a spectrograph, an instrument that strength of the magnetic field," McKenzie said. "So,
separates light into its component wavelengths. if you can measure the amount of splitting, then you
Each wavelength appears as a "notch" in the light have a remote measurement of how strong the
spectrum—scientists call them spectral lines. In the magnetic field is."
presence of a magnetic field, these lines
sometimes split. (This phenomenon, known as the CLASP2.1, which uses the same instrument as
Zeeman Effect, is named for Dutch physicist Pieter previous CLASP missions, has the same setup as
Zeeman, who first observed it in 1896. Zeeman CLASP2 but will test a new capability. Instead of
won a Nobel Prize for the discovery, which is measuring just one sliver of the sun, it will look at
foundational to astrophysics.) 12 to 15 equal-sized slivers during its six minutes in
space. (McKenzie says it would require many
hundreds of these segments to span the sun). Each
sliver reveals a snapshot of that section of the sun's
ever-changing magnetic field. The more slivers they
can cover, the broader a swath of the magnetic
field the scientists can visualize.
McKenzie hopes to eventually put the instrument
on a free-flying satellite where it could take
continuous measurements of the sun. Before a
piece of scientific equipment earns a spot aboard a
satellite, though, the researchers working on it must
demonstrate that it works. Sounding rocket
missions like this one allow McKenzie and the rest
of the team to test and refine their equipment. "It's
technology development, it's proof of concept, we
work out some of the bugs," he said. And, in the
process, the team produces snapshots of the
Spectro-polarimeter data from the first CLASP sounding chromosphere's magnetic fields.
rocket mission yielded the first ultraviolet polarization
measurements of the Sun’s chromosphere. The data
offered insight into one tiny section of the Sun, depicted
Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
by the faint line in the highlighted box. CLASP2.1 aims to
take measurements for 12-15 of these slivers. Credit:
NAOJ, JAXA, NASA/MSFC; background solar image:
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APA citation: Sounding rocket mission to offer snapshot of sun's magnetic field (2021, October 5)
retrieved 13 December 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-10-rocket-mission-snapshot-sun-
magnetic.html
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