Detector Development for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

Lead Research Organisation: University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Planned Impact

1. Public engagement

All Applicants are highly active in Public Understanding of Science programmes linked to their research. Examples (which will continue over the grant period) include:

Queen's: talks at annual events (Horizons in Physics for 4th/5th-form students; Physics 6th-Form Open Days; Physics Teachers Conference). Hosts work experience for children, with summer projects funded by Nuffield Foundation. Partnership with W5 Discovery Centre, hosting talks/Q&A sessions and hands-on building games.

Armagh: tours of Observatory and Astropark, talks and special public lectures/exhibitions. Recent projects include construction of the Human Orrery and facilitating an annual Cross-Border Schools Science Conference.

Glasgow: solar physics talks to societies, schools and public including in remote parts of Scotland; school visits with mobile planetarium; tours of observatory; Start-up Science school workshops with RSE and STFC Meet the Expert sessions.

Northumbria: PUS programme with local FE colleges, and involvement in regional/national science festivals (e.g. Newcastle). Recently awarded £1M from HEFCE Catalyst Fund for project to improve physics uptake. Creating Physics and Astrophysics outreach centre for this.

Sheffield: engages in school education programmes during e.g. National Science week, and recently joined University's Expert Guide, used frequently by journalists to source comments on topical news stories.

St Andrews: participates in local science festivals (e.g. Edinburgh, Fife, Dundee) and give schools talks. Lectures at the annual Sutton Trust Summer School and participates in the Annual Space Camp for P6 pupils. Contributes to Sun Trek, a Public Outreach/Educational Website (www.suntrek.org).

Warwick: broad and innovative approach to outreach, spanning formal presentations to interest groups (local astronomical societies), active engagement with media and larger projects (e.g. NESTA). Schools liaison officer supports links with schools and wider community.

2. Knowledge exchange

The large-area sCMOS camera to be developed is to meet the needs of next-generation solar telescopes and the broader astronomy community. However, the solar astronomy market alone is substantial, given the continued investment in existing solar facilities in Europe, US, India and China. There is also currently a demand for large-area CCD cameras in the general astronomy market. It is anticipated that a significant part of this market will migrate towards the next-generation of sCMOS detectors which offer faster speeds and lower noise. Non-solar applications include: near-Earth object detection, speckle interferometry, 'lucky astronomy' and other projects in high-time resolution astrophysics. It is also common in the astronomy marketplace to encounter significant opportunities for large-area cameras. For example, Andor is currently negotiating a contract to deliver 80 large-area CCD units for one project, with delivery over a 4-year period.

Although the unit sales of large-area sCMOS will not be as high as those for the current breed of mid-range sCMOS cameras for microscopy and optical electron microscope instrumentation applications, large-area astronomy detectors are typically priced much higher than mid-range detectors. Hence a lower volume market still yields an appropriate business case. A longer-term aim is to adapt the camera platform for high-speed X-ray detection applications, including protein crystallography and computed 3D X-ray tomography.

Competition currently does not exist, in that large-area fast sCMOS technology has not yet been offered but that is no guarantee it will not arrive from other parties within the project timescale. The most likely competitor is a US-based company already very active in large-area CCDs. However, Andor is confident of holding a market leading position, given their breath of expertise in both sCMOS and vacuum sensor technology

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description This grant, which provided PI time and travel support, has enabled the UK solar physics community to develop expertise and understanding of how the complex instruments on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope can be used, independently and together, to address specific scientific goals. Through support from this grant, the UK community has participated in workshops and training, learned to run the telescope's instrument performance simulators and developed scientific use cases that address topics of interest for UK science, and have led or participated in a large number of proposals for the first science observations. At the University of Glasgow we also developed some publicly-available software to assist in the characterisation and analysis of solar features from the telescope. A number of UK-led proposals were submitted to the first call for observing proposals in 2020, and 7 of these have been selected to be run, 2 at the highest priority.
Exploitation Route With the scientific use cases developed, the community's expertise was increase such that it was in an excellent position to write proposals for early observations on this telescope soon after its scientific first light early in 2020.
Sectors Education

 
Description Adjunct Professor
Amount £109,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Oslo 
Sector Academic/University
Country Norway
Start 12/2018 
End 11/2024
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation Aberystwyth University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation Andor Technology
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation Armagh Observatory and Planetarium
Department Armagh Observatory
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation Northumbria University
Department Physics and Electrical Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation Queen's University Belfast
Department School of Mathematics and Physics
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation University College London
Department Department of Space and Climate Physics (MSSL)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation University of Sheffield
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation University of St Andrews
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Description UK DKIST consortium 
Organisation University of Warwick
Department Department of Physics
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We lead a work package
Collaborator Contribution They lead, and work on, other work packages
Impact Building cameras for a new solar telescope (WP1) Developing data analysis tools and pipelines (WP2) Arranging community meetings, presentations,help with developing observing proposals (WP3)
Start Year 2015
 
Title Radynversion 
Description Radynversion is the implementation of an invertible neural network in python, that can be used to infer the atmospheric parameters during a solar flare from observations of the Hydrogen-alpha and Calcium-8542 Angstrom spectral lines, under the assumption that the RADYN code is a good description of the physics occuring in a solar flare. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2019 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact Radynversion has allowed credible inversions of the chromosphere in a solar flare, for the first time without the limiting assumptions of hydrostatic equilibrium and statistical equilibrium, which are unlikely to hold in flares. Initial results are described in the Radynversion paper. 
URL https://github.com/Goobley/Radynversion
 
Title Slic (Solar Image Classification) 
Description The software is a convolutional neural network for detecting features in the solar chromosphere. It can perform these detections in real-time with processing of over 1300 images taking 7 seconds. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2019 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact Slic has a lot of people talking about automating these processes in solar physics. 
URL https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11207-019-1473-z
 
Description BAA (Fletcher) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Talk on Solar Flares to the British Astronomical Association Annual Meeting, Chester (~100, mainly adults, some senior pupils)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.britastro.org/video/7997/11480
 
Description DKIST first light announcement 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Press release on the first light observations by the DKIST, highlighting University of Glasgow's role, STFC's support, and our research activities that will benefit from DKIST observations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_708045_en.html
 
Description LIGHTtalks 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Light talks - spoke about career in solar physics as part of the EU-wide LIGHTtalks International Year of Light presentations, run by SUPA and the IOP Scotland
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.europe.light2015.org/Home/Events/2015/LIGHTtalks--Careers-in-Photonics---Scotland.html
 
Description Talk on high resolution solar telescopes to SIGMA, Moray's Astronomy Society 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation on high-resolution solar telescopes to Moray Astronomy Society. Questions at the talk, and follow-up questions by email and an invitation to return.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Talks to Astronomy Societies 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Every year, postdoc and staff members of our group give several talks on the Sun and space weather to local and national astronomy societies. Typically there are about 10-12 such talks a year, with audiences between 10 and 40 adults and sometimes children

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Year(s) Of Engagement Activity Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016