The first images have been published from the Sunrise-Ⅲ balloon-borne solar telescope’s successful 6.5-day stratospheric flight in July 2024. The unprecedented huge amount of data (about 200 terabytes) recorded during the flight observations show structures down to only 50 kilometers in size on the Sun’s visible surface. The Sun is now in the maximum phase of its 11-year solar cycle (Cycle 25), so solar activity was high during the Sunrise-Ⅲ flight observations. Two solar flares were successfully observed as well as growing sunspots and various dynamical phenomena.
Within the international collaboration framework of the Sunrise-Ⅲ project, the near-infrared spectropolarimeter SCIP was developed under the leadership of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. SCIP observes many spectral lines simultaneously, including chromospheric and photospheric spectral lines, in the near-infrared wavelength bands. The images obtained by SCIP show the three-dimensional structures of the radiation intensity (Figure, right top) and magnetic field (Figure, right bottom) from the solar surface (photosphere) to the upper solar atmosphere (chromosphere). Elongated, fibril-like fine-scale structures in the vertical direction can be seen in the chromosphere, connecting the positive (white) and negative (black) polarity magnetic fields. Thanks to Sunrise-Ⅲ’s observations from a balloon in Earth’s stratosphere, the temporal evolution of these three-dimensional structures was successfully captured for several hours without interruption.
Furthermore, a Spanish team of amateur astronomers mounted four cameras on balloon’s gondola and took “selfies” of Sunrise-Ⅲ during the flight from takeoff to landing. Please take a look.
Related Link(s)
- First Solar Images from Sunrise III (Solar Science Observatory)
- First Solar Images from Sunrise III (Max Planck Institute for Solar System research)
