Speaker
Description
Since the first observation of a solar flare in 1859 by Carrington and Hodgson, explaining the origin of the excess visible continuum emission (white-light flares, WLFs) remains a challenge in the understanding of these events. Identifying the radiation mechanism involved is crucial for understanding the transport and deposition of energy in the solar atmosphere. However, spectral data for solar WLFs are relatively rare and insufficient to dispel the ambiguity of their origin: photospheric blackbody radiation or Paschen continuum from hydrogen recombination in the chromosphere. Due to the lack of solar observations with spectral resolution covering the entire visible range, we present a new telescope to meet this demand: the Solar UV-NIR Spectrometer (SUNS), developed and integrated at the Center for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics Mackenzie (CRAAM), in partnership with the Steiner Institute, with funding from FAPESP and MackPesquisa. We will present its optical, mechanical, and spectral characteristics, observation conditions, future steps, and expected results. SUNS will provide resolved spectra in the visible range, which will allow us to test current visible continuum emission models and move towards a solution to the more than 165-year-old mystery of the origin of WLFs.