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Infrared Images of the Sun During the July 11, 1991 Solar Eclipse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

E. V. Tollestrup ,
G. G. Fazio ,
J. Woolaway ,
J. Blackwell  and
K. Brecher
E. V. Tollestrup
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
G. G. Fazio
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
J. Woolaway
Affiliation:
Amber Engineering, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA 93117, U.S.A.
J. Blackwell
Affiliation:
Amber Engineering, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA 93117, U.S.A.
K. Brecher
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.A.

Abstract

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Infrared images (1.65 μm) of the eclipsed Sim were taken atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, during the July 11, 1991 total eclipse with an Amber Engineering 128 × 128 InSb array camera. The camera, mounted on a portable solar tracker, had a 3.8-cm, f/2 objective that produced a 4.9° field of view. The primary objective of the experiment was to search for dust or rocky rings around the Sun, previously detected at about 4 R ⊙. High thin clouds, atmospheric dust and aerosols from the June 1991 explosion of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, and the overall brightness of the solar corona resulted in a very high infrared background. Despite this, high signal-to-noise radial infrared intensity profiles were obtained of the solar corona from the Moon's limb out to about 10 R ⊙. Preliminary analysis shows some evidence for an enhanced surface brightness between 3 to 4 R ⊙ along the east-west direction, but much fainter than seen in previous solar eclipses. The transition region between the K-corona and the F-corona clearly shows at 2.5 R ⊙, and the surface brightness of the F-corona as a function of radius (from about 2 to 10 R ⊙) can be fit by a simple power law.

Keywords

eclipsesinfrared: starsinterplanetary mediumSun: corona
Type
Part 2: Infrared Observations of the 1991 Total Solar Eclipse
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 154: Infrared Solar Physics , 1994 , pp. 179 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1994 

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