About Solar-B

Solar-B Homepage
Information about Solar-B
The Science of Solar-B
EIS Science Planning Guide
Solar-B EIS Contacts
Solar-B Links
EIS working page
Mullard Space Science Laboratory

About Solar-B

Solar-B is due for launch in 2005 on an ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) M V rocket. It will be placed in a polar sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.9 degrees. The nominal mission lifetime is 3 years.

The instrument payload consists of:
Solar Optical Telescope (SOT)

This will be the first large optical telescope flown in space. Its aperture is 50cm and angular resolution achieved will be 0.25" (175km on the Sun) covering a wavelength range of 480-650nm.

SOT also includes the Focal Plane Package (FPP) vector magnetograph and spectrograph. The vector magnetograph will provide time series of photospheric vector magnetograms, Doppler velocity and photospheric intensity.

Magnetic lines: Fe I 525.0nm, Fe I 630.2nm, Continuum:524.6nm, Velocity: Fe I 532.4nm
FOV: 164x164"
Magnetic sensitivity: B(longitudinal): 1-5G, B(transverse): 30-50G
Temporal resolution: 5 mins

The FPP spectrograph has a spectral resolution of 2.0nm and provides detailed Stokes line profiles of intensity and polarization.

X-ray Telescope (XRT)

	XRT will provide coronal images at different temperatures, both full disk and partial fields of view. Temperature range: 6.1 < log T < 7.5 Temperature discrimination: log T=0.2 Angular resolution: 2" Temporal resolution: cadence=2s (reduced FOV), exposure time: min=4ms, max=10s FOV: Full disk (>30 arc min)

EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)

The telescope is an off-axis paraboloid design, with focal length 1.9m and mirror diameter 150mm. EIS has a total length of 3m. Multilayer toroidal gratings disperse the spectrum onto 2 detectors covering 40A each.

Wavelength range: 170-210A 240-290 A
Angular resolution: 2". Four slit/slot positions are available - 1" slit, 2" slit, 40" slot and 240" have been determined.
Spectral/Velocity resolution: 3km/s for Doppler velocities, 20km/s for line widths
Temporal resolution:
In sectrosocopy mode: < 1s in dynamic events ~ 10s in active regions
In imaging mode: monochromatic imaging of an active region (~4x4 arc min) in 3s for dynamic events, 10s otherwise.
FOV: 360"x512"

EIS will provide monochromatic images of the transition region and corona at high cadence using a slot. High spectral resolution images can be obtained by rastering with a slit.