The US National Science Foundation 4m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on Haleakala, Maui is the largest solar telescope in the world. DKIST’s superb resolution and polarimetric sensitivity will enable astronomers to explore the origins of solar magnetism, the mechanisms of coronal heating and drivers of flares and coronal mass ejections. DKIST operates as a coronagraph at infrared wavelengths, providing crucial measurements of the magnetic field in the corona. During its Operations Commissioning Phase, DKIST has already conducted a significant number of shared-risk observations for community researchers. The complex raw data are calibrated by the DKIST Data Center located in Boulder and distributed to the science community. We’ll present examples of science results and discuss lessons learned. Ongoing instrument development efforts include, an upgrade of the single-conjugate adaptive optics system to a multi-conjugate AO, the implementation of image slicers for the DL-NIRSP instrument and development of infrared detectors the DL- and CRYO-NIRSP instruments.
The Diffraction-Limited Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP) is a facility instrument of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST). DL-NIRSP was originally commissioned with a birefringent fiber optic image slicer for high resolution observations of the solar atmosphere to support contiguous 2D-spatial, spectral, and polarimetric measurements in three channels between 500 and 1800 nm with very high spectral resolution over narrow bandpasses. During commissioning, we found temporal variations of the flat field and other fiber-related issues limited instrument performance. To resolve these various problems, we replaced the existing fiber-based image slicer with the high resolution Machined Image Slicer Integral Field Unit with 36 micrometer wide slicer mirrors (MISI-36). We report on the implementation and optical testing of MISI-36.
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