The New Solar Telescope being commissioned at Big Bear Solar Observatory has taken some just released images of sunspots that are the most detailed sunspot images ever taken from a ground based solar telescope. The smallest details visible in the images are about 40 miles across.
Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun's surface that are associated with solar magnetic fields and other forms of solar magnetic activity. The sunspot AR NOAA 1084 shown in the image is about the size of Earth. The darkest portion of the spot is at a temperature of about 3900 Kelvins compared to the 5800 Kelvins of most of the solar surface. The small granulated regions outside the sunspot are granules caused by convection currents underneath the solar surface (photosphere).
The New Solar Telescope has a diameter of 1.6 meters. When it is fully commissioned, will equal the McMath-Pierce solar telescope on Kitt Peak as the largest ground based solar telescope in the world.
The New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory will however produce more detailed images. Big Bear Solar Observatory is located on an island in Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino mountains in southern California. The lake water is more thermally stable than land. Smaller daily temperature variations produce less atmospheric distortion and sharper images.
More importantly, The New Solar Telescope uses adaptive optics. Many small motors continually adjust the deformable telescope mirror to compensate for atmospheric distortions and to produce sharp images.
The images shown are in either the Hα or TiO wavelength bands. TiO is the molecule titanium oxide. Normally high temperatures in the Sun do not allow molecules to form, so TiO can only form in cooler spotted regions on the Sun. Hα is a spectral line of hydrogen which is stronger in sunspots and other active regions on the Sun.
High levels of sunspot and other solar magnetic activity can affect communications, satellites, and power grids as well as cause aurora activity. Extremely low levels of sunspot activity for extended time periods, such as the Maunder Minimum in the late 1600s, can cool Earth's climate.
Big Bear Solar Observatory is operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Also of Interest:
Solar Probe Plus, NASA announces instruments for the first mission to Sun in 2018
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