First solar observations with ALMA

Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter-Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has opened a new window for studying the Sun via high-resolution high-sensitivity imaging at millimeter wavelengths. In this contribution I review the capabilities of the instrument for solar observing and describe the extensive effort taken to bring the possibility of solar observing with ALMA to the scientific community. The first solar ALMA observations were carried out during 2014 and 2015 in two ALMA bands, Band 3 (3 mm) and Band 6 (1.3 mm), in single-dish and interferometric modes, using single pointing and mosaicing observing techniques, with spatial resolution up to 2arcsec and 1arcsec in the two bands, respectively. I overview several recently published studies which made use of the first solar ALMA observations, describe current status of solar observing with ALMA and briefly discuss the future capabilities of the instrument.

18 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research

References in corpus (11)

• 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
• Center-to-limb observations of the Sun with ALMA
• A First Comparison of Millimeter Continuum and Mg II Ultraviolet Line Emission from the Solar Chromosphere
• The Evolution and Physical Parameters of WN3/O3s: a New Type of Wolf-Rayet Star
• First analysis of solar structures in 1.21 mm full-disc ALMA image of the Sun
• Solar ALMA observations: constraining the chromosphere above sunspots
• First ALMA Observation of a Solar Plasmoid Ejection from an X-ray Bright Point
• The chromosphere above sunspots at millimeter wavelengths
• ALMA Discovery of Solar Umbral Brightness Enhancement at λ=3 mm
• The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Band-1 Receiver

Cited by in corpus (7)

• First high-resolution look at the quiet Sun with ALMA at 3 mm
• ALMA observations of the variability of the quiet Sun at millimeter wavelengths
• Modeling the quiet Sun cell and network emission with ALMA
• Solar observations with single-dish INAF radio telescopes: continuum imaging in the 18-26 GHz range
• Power distribution of oscillations in the atmosphere of a plage region: Joint observations with ALMA, IRIS and SDO
• Calculated brightness temperatures of solar structures compared with ALMA and Metsähovi measurements
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths V. Magnetohydrodynamic waves in a fibrillar structure