Flareguy18 Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Hello, everyone! So, I'm sure we are all interested in seeing how space weather predictions can be improved in the future. I think there is a lot of ground work to go before we are proficient with it. Recently, a new solar observatory has become operational in Hawaii. I believe it was transitioned to operational status just last month after construction was fully completed. It's called the Daniel K. Inouye telescope (or DKIST). This telescope currently has produced the highest resolution imagery we have to date of The Sun. It has a large 4m aperture which is capable of viewing very small scale features on the Sun as little as 30 km across! That is quite incredible! Here's its first images it took of The Sun during a testing phase several months back. https://nso.edu/telescopes/dkist/first-light-full-image/ According to their website, it is expected to view very small features on The Sun that influence how magnetic energy is stored and configured when solar flares and CMEs erupt. It can even identify the magnetic field orientation and strength of a CME as soon as it erupts! Obviously, these things are big game changers for predicting space weather and I'm sooo excited to see what this telescope will do for us in the coming months to years. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you all think! https://nso.edu/research/dkist-science-overview/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Warfel Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 2 hours ago, Flareguy18 said: It can even identify the magnetic field orientation and strength of a CME as soon as it erupts! Now that sounds very cool 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flareguy18 Posted January 20, 2022 Author Share Posted January 20, 2022 9 minutes ago, Orneno said: Now that sounds very cool 😎 Indeed! Just imagine how much better predictions would get if we could know before it strikes DISCOVR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vancanneyt Sander Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 2 uren geleden, Flareguy18 zei: According to their website, it is expected to view very small features on The Sun that influence how magnetic energy is stored and configured when solar flares and CMEs erupt. It can even identify the magnetic field orientation and strength of a CME as soon as it erupts! Obviously, these things are big game changers for predicting space weather and I'm sooo excited to see what this telescope will do for us in the coming months to years. Yes and no. First: it’s a ground based telescope so no 24/7 observation of the Sun so it won’t know strength of a CME if it was night. Second: weather, although on a more favourable location it’s still not 100%. Third: atmospheric conditions can affect the observations. field of view is 5 arc minutes. So to be able to measure strength of a CME and flare it needs to be pointed to that location. So it would have to monitor x-rays from space and then has to determine the location, pinpoint the telescope to make observations. so for space weather predictions it’s not a big added value. But for understanding our sun more and observe the sun in very detail it’s a big plus. It will help to uncover the suns secrets. So I’m looking forward for the observations it will make in unprecedented detail. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farm24 Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 17 hours ago, Vancanneyt Sander said: Yes and no. First: it’s a ground based telescope so no 24/7 observation of the Sun so it won’t know strength of a CME if it was night. Second: weather, although on a more favourable location it’s still not 100%. Third: atmospheric conditions can affect the observations. field of view is 5 arc minutes. So to be able to measure strength of a CME and flare it needs to be pointed to that location. So it would have to monitor x-rays from space and then has to determine the location, pinpoint the telescope to make observations. so for space weather predictions it’s not a big added value. But for understanding our sun more and observe the sun in very detail it’s a big plus. It will help to uncover the suns secrets. So I’m looking forward for the observations it will make in unprecedented detail. it could also probably help us understand sunspot development by zooming in on very small developing sunspots but this is just my speculation the video they made also deserves some appreciation got another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solarflaretracker200 Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 On 1/21/2022 at 6:58 AM, farm24 said: the video they made also deserves some appreciation got another What is that? Is that the sun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farm24 Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Solarflaretracker200 said: What is that? Is that the sun? Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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