3 research outputs found
The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)
The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) small explorer spacecraft
provides simultaneous spectra and images of the photosphere, chromosphere,
transition region, and corona with 0.33-0.4 arcsec spatial resolution, 2 s
temporal resolution and 1 km/s velocity resolution over a field-of-view of up
to 175 arcsec x 175 arcsec. IRIS was launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit on
27 June 2013 using a Pegasus-XL rocket and consists of a 19-cm UV telescope
that feeds a slit-based dual-bandpass imaging spectrograph. IRIS obtains
spectra in passbands from 1332-1358, 1389-1407 and 2783-2834 Angstrom including
bright spectral lines formed in the chromosphere (Mg II h 2803 Angstrom and Mg
II k 2796 Angstrom) and transition region (C II 1334/1335 Angstrom and Si IV
1394/1403 Angstrom). Slit-jaw images in four different passbands (C II 1330, Si
IV 1400, Mg II k 2796 and Mg II wing 2830 Angstrom) can be taken simultaneously
with spectral rasters that sample regions up to 130 arcsec x 175 arcsec at a
variety of spatial samplings (from 0.33 arcsec and up). IRIS is sensitive to
emission from plasma at temperatures between 5000 K and 10 MK and will advance
our understanding of the flow of mass and energy through an interface region,
formed by the chromosphere and transition region, between the photosphere and
corona. This highly structured and dynamic region not only acts as the conduit
of all mass and energy feeding into the corona and solar wind, it also requires
an order of magnitude more energy to heat than the corona and solar wind
combined. The IRIS investigation includes a strong numerical modeling component
based on advanced radiative-MHD codes to facilitate interpretation of
observations of this complex region. Approximately eight Gbytes of data (after
compression) are acquired by IRIS each day and made available for unrestricted
use within a few days of the observation.Comment: 53 pages, 15 figure