METIS: a novel coronagraph design for the Solar Orbiter mission

Silvano Fineschi; Ester Antonucci; Giampiero Naletto; Marco Romoli; Daniele Spadaro; Gianalfredo Nicolini; Lucia Abbo; Vincenzo Andretta; Alessandro Bemporad; Arkadiusz Berlicki; Gerardo Capobianco; Giuseppe Crescenzio; Vania Da Deppo; Mauro Focardi; Federico Landini; Giuseppe Massone; Marco A. Malvezzi; J. Dan Moses; Piergiorgio Nicolosi; Maurizio Pancrazzi; Maria-Guglielmina Pelizzo; Luca Poletto; Udo H. Schühle; Sami K. Solanki; Daniele Telloni; Luca Teriaca; Michela Uslenghi

doi:10.1117/12.927229

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27 September 2012 METIS: a novel coronagraph design for the Solar Orbiter mission

Silvano Fineschi, Ester Antonucci, Giampiero Naletto, Marco Romoli, Daniele Spadaro, Gianalfredo Nicolini, Lucia Abbo, Vincenzo Andretta, Alessandro Bemporad, Arkadiusz Berlicki, Gerardo Capobianco, Giuseppe Crescenzio, Vania Da Deppo, Mauro Focardi, Federico Landini, Giuseppe Massone, Marco A. Malvezzi, J. Dan Moses, Piergiorgio Nicolosi, Maurizio Pancrazzi, Maria-Guglielmina Pelizzo, Luca Poletto, Udo H. Schühle, Sami K. Solanki, Daniele Telloni, Luca Teriaca, Michela Uslenghi

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Proceedings Volume 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 84433H (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.927229
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

METIS (Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy) METIS, the “Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy”, is a coronagraph selected by the European Space Agency to be part of the payload of the Solar Orbiter mission to be launched in 2017. The mission profile will bring the Solar Orbiter spacecraft as close to the Sun as 0.3 A.U., and up to 35° out-of-ecliptic providing a unique platform for helio-synchronous observations of the Sun and its polar regions. METIS coronagraph is designed for multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopy of the solar corona. This presentation gives an overview of the innovative design elements of the METIS coronagraph. These elements include: i) multi-wavelength, reflecting Gregorian-telescope; ii) multilayer coating optimized for the extreme UV (30.4 nm, HeII Lyman-α) with a reflecting cap-layer for the UV (121.6 nm, HI Lyman-α) and visible-light (590-650); iii) inverse external-occulter scheme for reduced thermal load at spacecraft peri-helion; iv) EUV/UV spectrograph using the telescope primary mirror to feed a 1^st and 4^th-order spherical varied line-spaced (SVLS) grating placed on a section of the secondary mirror; v) liquid crystals electro-optic polarimeter for observations of the visible-light K-corona. The expected performances are also presented.

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Silvano Fineschi, Ester Antonucci, Giampiero Naletto, Marco Romoli, Daniele Spadaro, Gianalfredo Nicolini, Lucia Abbo, Vincenzo Andretta, Alessandro Bemporad, Arkadiusz Berlicki, Gerardo Capobianco, Giuseppe Crescenzio, Vania Da Deppo, Mauro Focardi, Federico Landini, Giuseppe Massone, Marco A. Malvezzi, J. Dan Moses, Piergiorgio Nicolosi, Maurizio Pancrazzi, Maria-Guglielmina Pelizzo, Luca Poletto, Udo H. Schühle, Sami K. Solanki, Daniele Telloni, Luca Teriaca, and Michela Uslenghi "METIS: a novel coronagraph design for the Solar Orbiter mission", Proc. SPIE 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 84433H (27 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.927229

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