Low orbit high resolution solar physics with the Solar Interferometer
Abstract
Following several years of design studies of Solar Interferometers (mainly for Space Missions), we have reached a very complete and mature mechanical and optical concept, as well as a comprehensive image reconstruction scenario. Furthermore, we demonstrated recently, on a laboratory representative breadboard —but also directly on the Sun—the feasibility and performances of the cophasing of two telescopes on extended objects. This definitively proves the validity of the pupil plane synchronous detection technique (applied to an extended object: the Sun) that we proposed and developed since 1988, These recent results really open the possibility to use and discover from solar interferometers either on ground or in Space. With a 1 meter baseline and 5 telescopes of 25 cm or so, permanent spatial resolution of 0.1″ on a 30″ field-of-view can be reached from the ground in the visible while 0.02″ could be achieved in the far UV, from Space, all with an adjustable spectral bandwidth of 0.01 to 10 nm.