Monitoring fast solar chromospheric activity: the MeteoSpace project

TL;DR

The MeteoSpace project introduces a high-cadence, multi-channel optical telescope system designed to systematically monitor fast, faint solar chromospheric events like flares and waves during solar cycle 25, providing valuable data for space weather research.

Contribution

It presents the design, testing, and capabilities of a novel high-speed telescope array for observing dynamic solar chromospheric phenomena, with data openly accessible to the scientific community.

Findings

Successful optical design and qualification of the telescopes

Detection of chromospheric waves associated with large flares

Operational deployment planned for 2023 at Calern observatory

Abstract

We present in this reference paper an instrumental project dedicated to the monitoring of solar activity during solar cycle 25. It concerns the survey of fast evolving chromospheric events implied in Space Weather, such as flares, coronal mass ejections, filament instabilities and Moreton waves. Coronal waves are produced by large flares around the solar maximum and propagate with chromospheric counterparts; they are rare, faint, difficult to observe, and for that reason, challenging. They require systematic observations with automatic, fast and multi-channel optical instruments. MeteoSpace is a high cadence telescope assembly specially designed for that purpose. The large amount of data will be freely available to the solar community. We describe in details the optical design, the qualification tests and capabilities of the telescopes, and show how waves can be detected. MeteoSpace will be installed at Calern observatory (C{\^o}te d'Azur, 1270 m) and will be in full operation in 2023.