HATS: A Ground-Based Telescope to Explore the THz Domain

Abstract

The almost unexplored frequency window from submillimeter to mid-infrared (mid-IR) may bring new clues about the particle acceleration and transport processes and the atmospheric thermal response during solar flares. Because of its technical complexity and the special atmospheric environment needed, observations at these frequencies are very sparse. The High Altitude THz Solar Photometer (HATS) is a full-Sun ground-based telescope designed to observe the continuum from the submillimeter to the mid-IR. It has a 457-mm spherical mirror with the sensor in its primary focus. The sensor is a Golay cell with high sensitivity in a very wide frequency range. The telescope has a polar mount, and a custom-built data acquisition system based on a 32 ksamples per second, 24 bits (72 dB dynamic range), 8 channels analog-to-digital board. Changing only the composition of the low- and band-pass filters in front of the Golay cell, the telescope can be setup to detect very different frequency bands; making the instrument very versatile. In this article we describe the telescope characteristics and its development status. Moreover, we give estimates of the expected fluxes during flares.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Solar Physics. 13 pages, 3 Figures and 2 Tables

References in corpus (7)

• Detection of a Millimeter Flare From Proxima Centauri
• Formation of the thermal infrared continuum in solar flares
• A bright impulsive solar burst detected at 30 THz
• Spectral and Imaging Observations of a White-light Flare in the Mid-Infrared
• 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
• Bright 30 THz Impulsive Solar Bursts

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Statistical analysis of the onset temperature of solar flares in 2010-2011
• A solar flare driven by thermal conduction observed in mid-infrared