The solar atmosphere is structured to very small scales which are dynamic in nature. Driven by the quest for higher spatial resolution observations, several AO systems have been deployed at major ground-based solar telescopes during the last two decades. Current high-resolution solar telescopes, which are in the 1-1.5 class, utilise AO routinely to achieve the diffraction limit at visible and...
Information about solar system small bodies’ size, shape and surface structures is crucial to shed light on the mechanisms behind planetary accretion and evolution.
Until very recently, a detailed characterization of such properties could be obtained only for the handful of objects visited by space missions.
However, new-generation adaptive-optics instruments can open a new frontier in...
The European Solar Telescope (EST) will provide spectro-polarimetric measurements of the solar atmosphere with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy within one arcminute field of view. To this purpose, its optical scheme, as well as its MCAO system, are designed to minimize the instrumental polarization. We report on ongoing activities related to the EST MCAO, which include further design...
During their lifetimes, sunspots show several dynamic phenomena whose underlying physical processes still need to be clarified. For example, the formation process of the penumbra remains unclear because of the need for long time-series of high-resolution observations that are hardly acquired with present-day telescopes. We report the results derived from analysis of unique observations carried...
