09/10/2025
By Lynne Schaufenbil
Abstract:
The solar magnetic field stores the energy that heats the Sun’s corona to over one million degrees and powers dynamic, potentially earth-effective events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. High-altitude infrared remote sensing is a promising method for measuring coronal magnetic fields, which are weak and notoriously difficult to observe, and characterizing the surrounding plasma environment. In this talk, I describe recent insights provided by a new CfA airborne spectrometer and discuss our plans for future airborne and balloon-borne spectrometers and magnetometers.
Our instrumentation program began with the development of an Airborne InfraRed Spectrometer (AIR-Spec) to measure infrared coronal emission lines during total solar eclipses. AIR-Spec made its commissioning observation from the NSF Gulfstream V research jet during the 2017 eclipse, when it measured all five of its target lines. These magnetically sensitive emission lines are promising candidates for future observations of the coronal magnetic field, and their characterization was an important first step toward developing the next generation of coronal magnetometers. The second AIR-Spec research flight took place during the 2019 eclipse across the southern Pacific. Higher sensitivity and reduced jitter enabled precise measurements of line intensity, plasma density, and plasma temperature up to 0.5 solar radii from the solar limb. We developed a new instrument, the Airborne Coronal Emission Surveyor (ACES), to measure eight emission lines during the 2024 eclipse, and we will upgrade that instrument to observe around 20 lines during the 2026 and 2027 eclipses. Increasing the number of lines gives us a more precise understanding of the corona’s plasma and more candidates for measuring its magnetic field in the future. In parallel with ACES, we are developing a balloon-borne coronagraph and spectropolarimeter that will observe the Sun continuously for at least one solar rotation from above Antarctica. The CORonal Spectropolarimeter for Airborne Infrared Research (CORSAIR) will measure the magnetic evolution of the corona, addressing a major missing piece of coronal physics, and the instrument itself will serve as a prototype for future space telescopes.
Bio:
As an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) | Harvard & Smithsonian, Jenna Samra develops remote sensing instruments to observe the solar corona. She leads the CfA’s high-altitude infrared coronal instrumentation program, the subject of today’s talk. Jenna has also contributed to ECCCO, a solar EUV telescope and spectrometer currently in a NASA SMEX Phase A, its predecessor COOL-AID, a rocket-borne solar EUV spectrometer, and MethaneAIR, a grating spectrometer that makes airborne measurements of atmospheric methane and is a pathfinder for MethaneSAT. Before beginning her doctoral work at the CfA in 2014, she worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the development of airborne environmental monitoring sensors and then as a graduate student at Harvard on atmospheric instrumentation. Jenna obtained BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Penn State in 2006 and 2008 and received a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University in 2018.
If you are interested in attending in-person or would like the Zoom link, please RSVP to Lynne_Schaufenbil@uml.edu.