Plan for the next Mercury observation in Tohoku University

M. Kagitani1, Hirohito Fukazawa1, S. Okano1

1 Planetary Plasma and Atmospheric Research Center, Tohoku University

May 6th 2008, IMW meeting, Paris

Spatial velocity fluctuation caused by source variability

•We may have caught fluctuation of anti-sunward velocity of sodium tail.

•The velocity fluctuation in the tail region is expected to reflect variability of initial velocity at the surface.

•In the next observation, we will focus on the observation of velocity distribution and its short time variability (<30 min) in the tail region.

•We will have to take multiple data with less than 10 minutes exposure during twilight.

Time-of-fight [min]0 312 376 421 457

An

ti-s

unw

ard

vel

ocit

y [k

m/s

]

30

20

10

0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Distance from Mercury [RM]

6-arcmin

~20-30min

Line-of-sight integration effect

•The sodium emission is brighter in the tail region close to Mercury.

•But in the region close to Mercury, < 10 RM, the spatial structure will be smeared by Line-of-sight integration effect.

•For the observation shown above, high-spectral resolution and wide FOV(>20 RM) are required.

Tail tube diameter

Smearing width cased by ling-of-sight integration is ~6 RM for PA=120o and 10RM tail tube diameter.

PA

Earth

TOHOKU facility at Mt.Haleakala, Hawaii

• 40-cm telescope and Long-slit Echelle spectrograph.

40cm-telescopeLong-slit Echelle spectrograph

Long-slit Echelle spectrograph

•New spectrograph used in the next Mercury observationcovers wide-FOV, 8arcmin or >100RM with R/R ~ 60,000, andtakes Sodium D lines (60th order) and Potassium 770nm line(45th order) simultaneously.

52.67 l/mm

Echelle grating

670mm F.L.

Slit

60um W x 12mm L

Telescope

40cm/F10

Pellicle mirror

Order cut filter; c=770nm

Order cut filter; c=589nm

CCD2; K7699, 45th order

CCD1; Na5889&5896, 60th orderSlit position viewer

New telescope project at Haleakala•New telescope project ongoing with Collaboration of University of Hawaii (Prof. Jeff Kuhn), ETH Zurich (Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina) and Tohoku University.Atmosphere and plasma emissions from our solar-system with VIS-IR s

pectroscopy/imagingExtrasolar planets with polarimetry and spectropolarimetry1.5-2m aperture, 7 arcmin FOV, diffraction limited image < 1 arcmin.Telescope for high dynamic range imaging polarimetric extrasolar plane

t searchOff-axis Gregorian telescopeEquatorial mount (fixed image plane)

•Remote operation goal for telescope (most instruments)

•Timescale for “first light” at the end of 2010.

Summary

•In the next observation, we will focus on the observation of velocity distribution and its short time variability (<30 min) in the tail region (10-100RM) using long-slit Echelle spectrogarph.

•This new telescope project is ongoing at Haleakala.

Future plans of Hawaii facility

•For the continuous monitoring of Mercury’s atmosphere and other target, we are ongoing to develop remote control of telescope and instruments.

New Instruments and Techniques for

Mercury observation in Tohoku University

M. Kagitani1, S. Okano1

1 Planetary Plasma and Atmospheric Research Center, Tohoku University

・

May 5th 2008, IMW meeting, Paris

New telescope project at Haleakala

telescope Preliminary Sketch

•Collaboration of University of Hawaii (Prof. Jeff Kuhn), ETH Zurich (Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina) and Tohoku University.

Atmosphere and plasma emissions from our solar-system with VIS-IR spectroscopy/imaging

Extrasolar planets with Polarimetry and spectropolarimetry

•Polarized Light from Atmospheres of Nearby Extra Terrestrial Systems (PLANETS) project

Telescope for high dynamic range imaging polarimetric extrasolar planet search1.5-2m aperture, 7 arcmin FOV, diffraction limited image < 1 arcmin.Off-axis Gregorian telescopeEquatorial mount (fixed image plane)

•Remote operation goal for telescope (most instruments)

•Timescale for “first light” at the end of 2010.