Prisma the Instruments

Extract

Our understanding of Solar structure has increased dramatically in the last couple of decades thanks mainly to the opening of new windows of observation providing high quality data to theoreticians with access to powerful computing facilities. Two of the new windows were UV and X-ray images of the Sun, allowing a detailed view of the upper solar atmosphere, and the development of very high resolution spectrometers allowing us to exploit the solar oscillations to probe the internal structure of the Sun. It is the goal of PRISMA to extend these techniques to other stars, which using the Sun as a calibration point will allow us to explore stellar structure and evolution in ways not possible now.

In this poster I will present a possible selection of instruments able to achieve this goal, and explain some of the rationale in their design. A more general overview is presented by T. Appouchaux also in these proceedings. It must be stressed that these are not the definitive instruments to be flown on PRISMA, but rather result from a study to show the feasibility of such a mission. Should PRISMA be chosen as the next ESA medium sized mission, an ‘Announcement of Opportunity’ wiH be issued by ESA and the responses of all people interested in constructing the instrument will be considered.