Metis: the Solar Orbiter visible light and ultraviolet coronal imager
Creators: name: Antonucci, Ester
name: Romoli, Marco
name: Andretta, Vincenzo
name: Fineschi, Silvano
name: Heinzel, Petr
name: Moses, J. Daniel
name: Naletto, Giampiero
name: Nicolini, Gianalfredo
name: Spadaro, Daniele
name: Teriaca, Luca
name: Berlicki, Arkadiusz
name: Capobianco, Gerardo
name: Crescenzio, Giuseppe
name: Da Deppo, Vania
name: Focardi, Mauro
name: Frassetto, Fabio
name: Heerlein, Klaus
name: Landini, Federico
name: Magli, Enrico
name: Malvezzi, Andrea Marco
name: Massone, Giuseppe
name: Melich, Radek
name: Nicolosi, Piergiorgio
name: Noci, Giancarlo
name: Pancrazzi, Maurizio
name: Pelizzo, Maria G.
name: Poletto, Luca
name: Sasso, Clementina
name: Schühle, Udo
name: Solanki, Sami K.
name: Strachan, Leonard
name: Susino, Roberto
name: Tondello, Giuseppe
name: Uslenghi, Michela
name: Woch, Joachim
name: Abbo, Lucia
name: Bemporad, Alessandro
name: Casti, Marta
name: Dolei, Sergio
name: Grimani, Catia
name: Messerotti, Mauro
name: Ricci, Marco
name: Straus, Thomas
name: Telloni, Daniele
name: Zuppella, Paola
name: Auchère, Frederic
name: Bruno, Roberto
name: Ciaravella, Angela
name: Corso, Alain J.
name: Copano, Miguel Alvarez
name: Cuadrado, Regina Aznar
name: D'Amicis, Raffaella
name: Enge, Reiner
name: Gravina, Alessio
name: Jejčič, Sonja
name: Lamy, Philippe
name: Lanzafame, Alessandro
name: Meierdierks, Thimo
name: Papagiannaki, Ioanna
name: Peter, Hardi
name: Rico, German Fernandez
name: Sertsu, Mewael Giday
name: Staub, Jan
name: Tsinganos, Kanaris
name: Velli, Marco
name: Ventura, Rita
name: Verroi, Enrico
name: Vial, Jean-Claude
name: Vives, Sebastien
name: Volpicelli, Antonio
name: Werner, Stephan
name: Zerr, Andreas
name: Negri, Barbara
name: Castronuovo, Marco
name: Gabrielli, Alessandro
name: Bertacin, Roberto
name: Carpentiero, Rita
name: Natalucci, Silvia
name: Marliani, Filippo
name: Cesa, Marco
name: Laget, Philippe
name: Morea, Danilo
name: Pieraccini, Stefano
name: Radaelli, Paolo
name: Sandri, Paolo
name: Sarra, Paolo
name: Cesare, Stefano
name: Del Forno, Felice
name: Massa, Ernesto
name: Montabone, Mauro
name: Mottini, Sergio
name: Quattropani, Daniele
name: Schillaci, Tiziano
name: Boccardo, Roberto
name: Brando, Rosario
name: Pandi, Arianna
name: Baietto, Cristian
name: Bertone, Riccardo
name: Alvarez-Herrero, Alberto
name: Parejo, Pilar García
name: Cebollero, María
name: Amoruso, Mauro
name: Centonze, Vito
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona from 1.7 $R_\odot$ to about 9 $R_\odot$. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close vantage point (down to 0.28 AU), achieving out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, will allow longer-term studies of the coronal features. Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H I Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm. The coronal images in both the UV Lyman-α and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 second can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light. The Metis measurements will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes acceleration and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections take place, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere.