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HINODE Operation Plan (HOP)

accepted on

26-sep-2019


 HOP No.

 HOP title

HOP 0388

Transit of Mercury (ToM) 2019 Nov 11

plan term

2019/11/11-2019/11/11

@ @

proposer

 name : Pasachoff, Sterling @  e-mail : jay.m.pasachoff[at]williams.edu, alphonse.sterling[at]nasa.gov

contact person in HINODE team

 name : Savage, Watanabe, De Pontieu @  e-mail : sabrina.savage[at]nasa.gov, watanabe.tetsuya[at]nao.ac.jp, bdp[at]lmsal.com

 abstract of observational proposal
Main Objective: Observe Mercury as it transits the Sun on 2019 November 11

Scientific Justification: Mercury will transit the Sun on 2019 November 11, for the last time until 2032. We (JMP) will observe contacts 3 and 4 from the ground at Big Bear Solar Observatory. We request complementary observations from Hinode. Our ground-based observations are focused on studying the black drop effect. A convincing explanation for this long-observed effect has been presented only within the past couple of decades based on satellite images of the 1999 transit of Mercury (e.g., Schneider et al. 2004, Pasachoff et al. 2011). We will seek to gain further insight into the phenomenon with ground-based observations during contacts 3 and 4. The XRT images will complement the ground observations. We request high-cadence XRT observations at least over the period of contacts 3 and 4 to support these scientific studies.

We also request observations tracking Mercuryfs silhouette across the X-ray disk (at lower cadence than the limb-crossing times would be acceptable). These results will be of importance for public outreach.

References:
Pasachoff, J. M., Schneider, G. & Widemann, T. 2011, Astron. J 2011, 141, 112
Schneider, G., Pasachoff, J. M., & Golub, L. 2004, Icarus, 168, 249

 request to SOT
NONE

 request to XRT
Our only specific request is to XRT. Our minimum requirement is a set of images
in a thin filter (Al/poly or Al/mesh) at 30 s cadence (or higher) for the hour surrounding contacts 3 and 4.

These observations should be similar to those taken by XRT for HOP 303.
Even though our team will not observe contacts 1-2, we suggest symmetric movies of the same cadence surrounding contacts 1-4.

 request to EIS
No specific requests, but as a minimum we suggest IRIS take observations complementing XRT for public outreach. Perhaps slot images for public outreach (cf. HOP 303).

 other participating instruments
IRIS:
No specific requests, but as a minimum we suggest IRIS take observations complementing XRT for public outreach.

BBSO:
We will observe from BBSO.

 remarks
Dates: 2019 Nov 11
Time window: UT Transit contact times (geocentric values) on 2019 Nov 11:
I: 12:35:26
II: 12:37:08
III: 18:02:33
IV: 18:04:14

Target(s) of interest: Target is Mercury at the solar limb and crossing the solar disk.

Previous HOPs:
HOP 339. (Data from that HOP were used in Hanaoka et al. 2018, ApJ, 860, 142.)
HOP 303 (results from this HOP for ToM 2016 were used for public outreach).

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