Construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope

Joseph P. McMullin; Thomas R. Rimmele; Mark Warner; Valentin M. Pillet; Roberto Casini; Steve Berukoff; Simon C. Craig; David Elmore; Andrew Ferayorni; Bret D. Goodrich; Robert P. Hubbard; David Harrington; Steve Hegwer; Paul Jeffers; Erik M. Johansson; Jeff Kuhn; Haosheng Lin; Heather Marshall; Mihalis Mathioudakis; William R. McBride II; William McVeigh; LeEllen Phelps; Wolfgang Schmidt; Steve Shimko; Stacey Sueoka; Alexandra Tritschler; Timothy R. Williams; Friedrich Wöger

doi:10.1117/12.2235227

18 August 2016 Construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope

Joseph P. McMullin, Thomas R. Rimmele, Mark Warner, Valentin M. Pillet, Roberto Casini, Steve Berukoff, Simon C. Craig, David Elmore, Andrew Ferayorni, Bret D. Goodrich, Robert P. Hubbard, David Harrington, Steve Hegwer, Paul Jeffers, Erik M. Johansson, Jeff Kuhn, Haosheng Lin, Heather Marshall, Mihalis Mathioudakis, William R. McBride II, William McVeigh, LeEllen Phelps, Wolfgang Schmidt, Steve Shimko, Stacey Sueoka, Alexandra Tritschler, Timothy R. Williams, Friedrich Wöger

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI; 99061B (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2235227
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

We provide an update on the construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. This 4-m diameter facility is designed to enable detection and spatial/temporal resolution of the predicted, fundamental astrophysical processes driving solar magnetism at their intrinsic scales throughout the solar atmosphere. These data will drive key research on solar magnetism and its influence on solar winds, flares, coronal mass ejections and solar irradiance variability. The facility is developed to support a broad wavelength range (0.35 to 28 microns) and will employ state-of-the-art adaptive optics systems to provide diffraction limited imaging, resolving features approximately 20 km on the Sun. At the start of operations, there will be five instruments initially deployed: Visible Broadband Imager (VBI; National Solar Observatory), Visible SpectroPolarimeter (ViSP; NCAR High Altitude Observatory), Visible Tunable Filter (VTF (a Fabry-Perot tunable spectropolarimeter); Kiepenheuer Institute for Solarphysics), Diffraction Limited NIR Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP; University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy) and the Cryogenic NIR Spectropolarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP; University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy).

As of mid-2016, the project construction is in its 4th year of site construction and 7th year overall. Major milestones in the off-site development include the conclusion of the polishing of the M1 mirror by University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences, the delivery of the Top End Optical Assembly (L3), the acceptance of the Deformable Mirror System (Xinetics); all optical systems have been contracted and are either accepted or in fabrication. The Enclosure and Telescope Mount Assembly passed through their factory acceptance in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The enclosure site construction is currently concluding while the Telescope Mount Assembly site erection is underway. The facility buildings (Utility and Support and Operations) have been completed with ongoing work on the thermal systems to support the challenging imaging requirements needed for the solar research.

Finally, we present the construction phase performance (schedule, budget) with projections for the start of early operations.

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Joseph P. McMullin, Thomas R. Rimmele, Mark Warner, Valentin M. Pillet, Roberto Casini, Steve Berukoff, Simon C. Craig, David Elmore, Andrew Ferayorni, Bret D. Goodrich, Robert P. Hubbard, David Harrington, Steve Hegwer, Paul Jeffers, Erik M. Johansson, Jeff Kuhn, Haosheng Lin, Heather Marshall, Mihalis Mathioudakis, William R. McBride II, William McVeigh, LeEllen Phelps, Wolfgang Schmidt, Steve Shimko, Stacey Sueoka, Alexandra Tritschler, Timothy R. Williams, and Friedrich Wöger "Construction status of the Daniel K. Inouye solar telescope", Proc. SPIE 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI, 99061B (18 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2235227

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