High-Speed Imaging System for Solar-Flare Research at Hida Observatory

A high-speed imaging system for observing solar flares in the continuum and Hα wavelengths was installed on a φ 25 cm telescope of the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope (SMART) at Hida observatory of Kyoto University. The aim of this system is to diagnose the spatio-temporal evolution of high-energy particles in solar flares by capturing the explosive evolution of chromospheric and photospheric flare kernels. The system acquires flare images covering a field of view of 344$ ''$$ ×$ 258$ ''$ with a spatial sampling of 0$ 1pt''\!\!\!.1pt$ 215 pixel$ ⁻¹$ and a frame rate of 25 frames s$ ⁻¹$ . Initial data, including two white-light flares, demonstrate the diffraction-limited performance of the system. Observations have been in regular operation since 2011 November. The system is expected to provide a data set that is highly complementary with Hinode/SOT, SDO/AIA, and other ground-based instruments for upcoming solar-flare research.