RUI: Imaging and Spectra at the 2023 and 2024 Total Solar Eclipses

A thorough understanding of the solar corona remains one of the most important areas in solar research. Studies of the solar corona during solar eclipses have been a major part of the success of the Williams College astronomy department in attracting and training students. This project continues solar eclipse studies with unique, ground-based measurements in concert with space-based and ground-based radio observations from NSF-funded telescopes.

Undergraduate students, including students from under-represented groups in STEM, will be trained and participating in observations of two solar eclipses.

The solar eclipse observations include exquisitely high-resolution observations with a Fabry-Perot and with Lyot/Halle filters. Observations also include high-frequency (> 1 Hz) power spectra of narrow-band coronal loops to compare mechanisms of coronal heating. Spectrographic observations continue to study changes of the spectral-line ratios over the solar-activity cycle through the predicted 2024 low maximum, comparing with previous solar-minimum observations from this group.

Additionally, radio observations will be make with the NSF-funded Jansky Very Large Array, to provide the best-ever mapping of active regions to pinpoint the different locations of radio and EUV eruption origins, and Owens Valley Radio Observatory and a radiotelescope in the Apple Valley. The aim is to study differences in the corona during solar minimum and solar maximum.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.