Speaker
Description
ASPIICS is a 144m baseline coronagraph onboard the Proba-3 mission, designed to perform regular observations of the solar corona in visible light over a field of view (FOV) from 1.1 to 3$R_{Sun}$. Despite very low minimal FOV, the amount of the diffracted light reaching the ASPIICS detector is extremely small and is not detectable in routine coronal images. However, this diffracted light becomes observable during dedicated calibration campaigns with off-pointings of the telescope. In this work, we analyze available observations and compere the measured diffracted light with the numerical model. The observed data reproduce all major features predicted by the model, with absolute intensity levels agreeing within approximately 50%. We discuss possible origin of the remaining discrepancy, and applications of the model to other existing or future space coronagraphs.
