| Presentation Title: | BUBO: the student-Built Ultraviolet solar Burst Observer |
| Author(s): | Christopher Entzel, Sarah Pawlowski, Charles Kankelborg |
Abstract:
Solar flares are among the most powerful events in the solar system, releasing up to 10^32 ergs of energy. Although these events are well studied by numerous instruments, much remains to be learned about flare behavior at sub-second timescales. BUBO, the Student-Built Ultraviolet Solar Burst Observer, will help us better understand the behavior of solar plasma during these energetic events.
BUBO is a six-channel radiometer sensitive to extreme ultraviolet (EUV), soft X-ray (SXR), and hard X-ray (HXR) emissions. The instrument will measure disk-integrated solar flare emissions at a 0.01 s cadence with SXR source locating capability. Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) with periods greater than a second have been observed in many wavelength bands (Van Doorsselaere et al. 2016). Tan et al. (2010) observed numerous sub-second microwave QPPs during a solar flare, and CORONAS/IRIS observations found HXR pulses with superfine time structure during a flare (Charikov et al. 2004). We therefore ask, are sub-second QPPs occurring in the EUV and SXR energy bands? With BUBO’s 0.01 s cadence, such QPPs could be observed. Due to the comparatively long exposure times of imagers, sub-second movement of SXR hot spots have not been investigated. We hypothesize that rapid, local movements in the hot spot’s location occur during the evolution of a solar flare. With BUBO’s high cadence and sensitive SXR source location capability, these hypothesized movements could be observed. Additionally, BUBO will examine the late-phase thermal evolution of solar flares on a centi-second timescale. Temperatures will be derived from BUBO’s measurements in overlapping EUV, SXR, and HXR passbands.
BUBO will be part of the Multi-Slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), a satellite mission scheduled to launch in 2027. BUBO will augment the MUSE mission by measuring high temperature thermal emissions from flares at a rapid cadence.