The Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) is a solar observatory located on the slopes of Mauna Loa on the island of Hawai'i in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Built in 1965, the MLSO is operated by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), a laboratory within the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and is situated on property managed by the Mauna Loa Observatory.
K-coronagraph
The COSMO K-coronagraph (K-Cor) is a 20 cm-aperture white-light coronagraph. It images the linearly polarized light from the continuous spectrum of the K-corona, which is produced by Thomson scattering of light from the photosphere by free electrons in the corona. Its field of view extends above the solar limb from 1.05 to 3 solar radii with a spatial resolution of 6 arcseconds per pixel and time cadence of 15 seconds. K-Cor went into service in September 2013, replacing the Mark-IV K-Coronameter.
Former instruments
- The Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP) monitored the magnetic field in the corona by recording the strength and polarization of light received from corona.
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External links
- High Altitude Observatory
- National Center for Atmospheric Research