Solar science with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array - A new view of our Sun

Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a new powerful tool for observing the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. These capabilities can address a broad range of fundamental scientific questions in solar physics. The radiation observed by ALMA originates mostly from the chromosphere - a complex and dynamic region between the photosphere and corona, which plays a crucial role in the transport of energy and matter and, ultimately, the heating of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Based on first solar test observations, strategies for regular solar campaigns are currently being developed. State-of-the-art numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and modeling of instrumental effects can help constrain and optimize future observing modes for ALMA. Here we present a short technical description of ALMA and an overview of past efforts and future possibilities for solar observations at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. In addition, selected numerical simulations and observations at other wavelengths demonstrate ALMA's scientific potential for studying the Sun for a large range of science cases.

73 pages, 21 figures ; Space Science Reviews (accepted December 10th, 2015); accepted version

References in corpus (65)

• The Solar Optical Telescope for the Hinode Mission: An Overview
• Alfven Waves in the Lower Solar Atmosphere
• Hot Explosions in the Cool Atmosphere of the Sun
• Prevalence of Small-scale Jets from the Networks of the Solar Transition Region and Chromosphere
• A solar surface dynamo
• The Black Hole Mass, Stellar M/L, and Dark Halo in M87
• The Nature of SS433 and the Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Dynamic Fibrils are driven by Magnetoacoustic Shocks
• High Resolution Observations and Modeling of Dynamic Fibrils
• A Contemporary View of Coronal Heating
• Convectively driven vortex flows in the Sun
• A publicly available simulation of an enhanced network region of the Sun
• Evidence of Non-Thermal Particles in Coronal Loops Heated Impulsively by Nanoflares
• A Magnetized Jet from a Massive Protostar
• Nonlinear Instability of kink oscillations due to shear motions
• Fine strand-like structure in the solar corona from MHD transverse oscillations
• Resonant Absorption of Transverse Oscillations and Associated Heating in a Solar Prominence. II- Numerical aspects
• Solar Carbon Monoxide, Thermal Profiling, and the Abundances of C, O, and their Isotopes
• Resonant Absorption of Transverse Oscillations and Associated Heating in a Solar Prominence. I- Observational aspects
• The Formation of Kappa-Distribution Accelerated Electron Populations in Solar Flares
• The multi-thermal and multi-stranded nature of coronal rain
• The Unresolved Fine Structure Resolved - IRIS observations of the Solar Transition Region
• Coupling from the photosphere to the chromosphere and the corona
• Do all Flares have White Light Emission?
• Resonant absorption in complicated plasma configurations: applications to multi-stranded coronal loop oscillations
• Dynamics of the Solar Magnetic Network. II. Heating the Magnetized Chromosphere
• 3D Radio and X-Ray Modeling and Data Analysis Software: Revealing Flare Complexity
• Observations of Subarcsecond Bright Dots in the Transition Region above Sunspots with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
• Chromospheric magnetic field and density structure measurements using hard X-rays in a flaring coronal loop
• Damping of Fast Magnetohydrodynamic Oscillations in Quiescent Filament Threads
• Propagation of Alfvénic Waves From Corona to Chromosphere and Consequences for Solar Flares
• Vigorous convection in a sunspot granular light bridge
• Stereoscopic electron spectroscopy of solar hard X-ray flares with a single spacecraft
• GALEX high time-resolution ultraviolet observations of dMe flare events
• Millimeter radiation from a 3D model of the solar atmosphere I. Diagnosing chromospheric thermal structure
• The signature of chromospheric heating in Ca II H spectra
• Small-Scale Structuring Of Ellerman Bombs at Solar Limb
• Broadband Quasi-Periodic Radio and X-ray Pulsations in a Solar Flare
• On the plasma flow inside magnetic tornadoes on the Sun
• Radio Spectral Evolution of an X-ray Poor Impulsive Solar Flare: Implications for Plasma Heating and Electron Acceleration
• Explosive events on sub-arcsecond scale in IRIS observations: a case study
• Overdamped Alfven waves due to ion-neutral collisions in the solar chromosphere
• Unresolved fine-scale structure in solar coronal loop-tops
• Heating of the magnetic chromosphere: observational constraints from Ca II 8542 spectra
• Inter-network regions of the Sun at millimetre wavelengths
• Conditions for Photospherically Driven Alfvenic Oscillations to Heat the Solar Chromosphere by Pedersen Current Dissipation
• Wave dynamics in a sunspot umbra
• Oscillations in a sunspot with light bridges
• Trigger Mechanism of Solar Subflares in a Braided Coronal Magnetic Structure
• Origin of the 30 THz emission detected during the 2012 March 13 solar flare at 17:20 UT
• Sub-terahertz, microwaves and high energy emissions during the December 6, 2006 flare, at 18:40 UT
• A solar tornado observed by EIS: Plasma diagnostics
• Generation of electric currents in the chromosphere via neutral-ion drag
• Dynamics in Sunspot Umbra as Seen in New Solar Telescope and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph Data
• Hα spectroscopy and multiwavelength imaging of a solar flare caused by filament eruption
• Coronal Magnetography of a Simulated Solar Active Region from Microwave Imaging Spectropolarimetry
• Measurements of electron anisotropy in solar flares using albedo with RHESSI X-ray data
• Bright 30 THz Impulsive Solar Bursts
• The chromosphere above sunspots at millimeter wavelengths
• Carbon monoxide in the solar atmosphere II. Radiative cooling by CO lines
• ALMA as the ideal probe of the solar chromosphere
• Bound state properties and photodetachment of the negatively charged hydrogen ions
• Molecular absorption in transition region spectral lines
• A 3D radiative transfer framework: XI. multi-level NLTE
• The contribution of microbunching instability to solar flare emission in the GHz to THz range of frequencies

Cited by in corpus (79)

• Quasi-periodic pulsations in solar and stellar flares: an overview of recent results
• Solar ultraviolet bursts
• Observing the Sun with the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA): Fast-Scan Single-Dish Mapping
• Observing the Sun with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA): High Resolution Interferometric Imaging
• Waves in the lower solar atmosphere: the dawn of next-generation solar telescopes
• Measurements of Photospheric and Chromospheric Magnetic Fields
• Center-to-limb observations of the Sun with ALMA
• Solar Chromospheric Temperature Diagnostics: a joint ALMA-H$\alpha$ analysis
• Wideband 67-116 GHz receiver development for ALMA Band 2
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths I. Introduction to ALMA Band 3 observations
• High Frequency Waves in Chromospheric Spicules
• The solar chromosphere at millimetre and ultraviolet wavelengths. I. Radiation temperatures and a detailed comparison
• First analysis of solar structures in 1.21 mm full-disc ALMA image of the Sun
• Temperature constraints from inversions of synthetic solar optical, UV and radio spectra
• H-alpha features with hot onsets III. Fibrils in Lyman-alpha and with ALMA
• Sunrise III: Overview of Observatory and Instruments
• Observations of solar chromospheric oscillations at 3 mm with ALMA
• Solar polar brightening and radius at 100 and 230 GHz observed by ALMA
• First high-resolution look at the quiet Sun with ALMA at 3 mm
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths -- II. Small-scale dynamic events in ALMA Band 3
• The Formation Height of Millimeter-wavelength Emission in the Solar Chromosphere
• Radio Stars: from kHz to THz
• Transient brightenings in the quiet Sun detected by ALMA at 3 mm
• Umbral chromospheric fine structure and umbral flashes modelled as one: the corrugated umbra
• Heating of the solar chromosphere through current dissipation
• The Brightness Temperature of the Quiet Solar Chromosphere at 2.6 mm
• First Spectral Analysis of a Solar Plasma Eruption Using ALMA
• High-frequency wave power observed in the solar chromosphere with IBIS and ALMA
• ALMA and IRIS Observations of the Solar Chromosphere I: an On-Disk Type II Spicule
• An overall view of temperature oscillations in the solar chromosphere with ALMA
• ALMA observations of transient heating in a solar active region
• Three-dimensional hydrodynamical CO5BOLD model atmospheres of red giant stars VI. First chromosphere model of a late-type giant
• ALMA observations of the variability of the quiet Sun at millimeter wavelengths
• Gyroresonance and free-free radio emissions from multi-thermal multi-component plasma
• First solar observations with ALMA
• The Mouse that Squeaked: A small flare from Proxima Cen observed in the millimeter, optical, and soft X-ray with Chandra and ALMA
• A study of sunspot 3 minute oscillations using ALMA and GST
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths. III. Impact of the spatial resolution on solar ALMA observations
• EMISSA -- Exploring Millimeter Indicators of Solar-Stellar Activity I. The Initial mm-cm Main Sequence Star Sample
• A first look at the submillimeter Sun with ALMA
• MESAS: Measuring the Emission of Stellar Atmospheres at Submm/mm wavelengths
• High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere
• Solar prominence modelling and plasma diagnostics at ALMA wavelengths
• Oscillation of solar radio emission at coronal acoustic cut-off frequency
• High-frequency oscillations in small chromospheric bright features observed with ALMA
• Characterisation of shock wave signatures at millimetre wavelengths from Bifrost simulations
• FLUKA Simulations of Pion Decay Gamma-radiation from Energetic Flare Ions
• Evaluating Non-LTE Spectral Inversions with ALMA and IBIS
• First High Resolution Interferometric Observation of a Solar Prominence With ALMA
• ALMA as a prominence thermometer: First observations
• Comparison of solar radio and EUV synoptic limb charts during the present solar maximum
• A Genetic Algorithm to model Solar Radio Active Regions from 3D Magnetic Field Extrapolations
• Flares detected in ALMA single-dish images of the Sun
• EMISSA -- Exploring Millimetre Indicators of Solar-Stellar Activity II. Towards a robust indicator of stellar activity
• Propagation of transverse waves in the solar chromosphere probed at different heights with ALMA sub-bands
• Excitation of Multi-periodic Kink Motions in Solar Flare Loops: Possible Application to Quasi-periodic Pulsations
• Unveiling the True Nature of Plasma Dynamics from the Reference Frame of a Super-penumbral Fibril
• Association of radio polar cap brightening with bright patches and coronal holes
• Differences in physical properties of coronal bright points and their ALMA counterparts within and outside coronal holes
• Spectral Gradient of the Thermal Millimetre Continuum as a Diagnostic for Optical Thickness in the Solar Atmosphere
• Power distribution of oscillations in the atmosphere of a plage region: Joint observations with ALMA, IRIS and SDO
• Non-Linear Convergence of Solar-like Stars Chromospheres using Millimeter, Sub-millimeter, and Infrared Observations
• Influence of fine structures on gyrosynchrotron emission of flare loops modulated by sausage modes
• Submillimeter radiation as the thermal component of the Neupert Effect
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths IV. Magnetohydrodynamic waves in small-scale bright features
• Thyr: A Volumetric Ray-Marching Tool for Simulating Microwave Emission
• Comparison of chromospheric diagnostics in a 3D model atmosphere: H$\alpha$ linewidth and mm continua
• Deep solar ALMA neural network estimator for image refinement and estimates of small-scale dynamics
• Calculated brightness temperatures of solar structures compared with ALMA and Metsähovi measurements
• Modeling brightness temperature of prominences on the solar disk using ALMA single-dish observations
• EMISSA: Exploring millimetre indicators of solar-stellar activity III. Comparison of Ca II indices and millimetre continua in a 3D model atmosphere
• Discovery of ionized circumstellar gas emission around the long-period Cepheid $\ell$ Carinae with ALMA
• Pre-impulsive and Impulsive Phases of the Sub-Terahertz Flare of March 28, 2022
• Utilizing the slope of the brightness temperature continuum as a diagnostic tool of solar ALMA observations
• Observing the Sun with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA): Polarization Observations at 3 mm
• Role of non-thermal processes in the quiescent and active millimeter spectrum of a young M dwarf
• Modeling brightness temperature of sunspots using ALMA single-dish observations
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths V. Magnetohydrodynamic waves in a fibrillar structure
• The Solar ALMA Science Archive (SALSA)