Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed

Andrea S. J. Lin; Andrew Monson; Suvrath Mahadevan; Joe P. Ninan; Samuel Halverson; Colin Nitroy; Chad F. Bender; Sarah E. Logsdon; Shubham Kanodia; Ryan C. Terrien; Arpita Roy; Jacob K. Luhn; Arvind F. Gupta; Eric B. Ford; Fred Hearty; Russ R. Laher; Emily Hunting; William R. McBride; Noah Isaac Salazar Rivera; Jayadev Rajagopal; Marsha J. Wolf; Paul Robertson; Jason T. Wright; Cullen H. Blake; Caleb I. Cañas; Emily Lubar; Michael W. McElwain; Lawrence W. Ramsey; Christian Schwab; Gudmundur Stefansson

doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac5622

Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed

Andrea S. J. Lin^*, Andrew Monson, Suvrath Mahadevan, Joe P. Ninan, Samuel Halverson, Colin Nitroy, Chad F. Bender, Sarah E. Logsdon, Shubham Kanodia, Ryan C. Terrien, Arpita Roy, Jacob K. Luhn, Arvind F. Gupta, Eric B. Ford, Fred Hearty, Russ R. Laher, Emily Hunting, William R. McBride, Noah Isaac Salazar Rivera, Jayadev RajagopalMarsha J. Wolf, Paul Robertson, Jason T. Wright, Cullen H. Blake, Caleb I. Cañas, Emily Lubar, Michael W. McElwain, Lawrence W. Ramsey, Christian Schwab, Gudmundur Stefansson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Efforts with extreme-precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments to detect small-amplitude planets are largely limited, on many timescales, by the effects of stellar variability and instrumental systematics. One avenue for investigating these effects is the use of small solar telescopes which direct disk-integrated sunlight to these EPRV instruments, observing the Sun at high cadence over months or years. We have designed and built a solar feed system to carry out "Sun-as-a-star"observations with NEID, a very high precision Doppler spectrometer recently commissioned at the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The NEID solar feed has been taking observations nearly every day since 2020 December; data is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute NEID Solar Archive: https://neid.ipac.caltech.edu/search_solar.php. In this paper, we present the design of the NEID solar feed and explanations behind our design intent. We also present early radial velocity (RV) results which demonstrate NEID's RV stability on the Sun over 4 months of commissioning: 0.66 m s-1 rms under good sky conditions and improving to 0.41 m s-1 rms under best conditions.

Original language	English
Article number	184
Pages (from-to)	1-17
Number of pages	17
Journal	Astronomical Journal
Volume	163
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac5622
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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Lin, A. S. J., Monson, A., Mahadevan, S., Ninan, J. P., Halverson, S., Nitroy, C., Bender, C. F., Logsdon, S. E., Kanodia, S., Terrien, R. C., Roy, A., Luhn, J. K., Gupta, A. F., Ford, E. B., Hearty, F., Laher, R. R., Hunting, E., McBride, W. R., Salazar Rivera, N. I., ... Stefansson, G. (2022). Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed. Astronomical Journal, 163(4), 1-17. Article 184. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac5622

@article{bec652d3ef834e21890d3b0559ba26be,

title = "Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed",

abstract = "Efforts with extreme-precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments to detect small-amplitude planets are largely limited, on many timescales, by the effects of stellar variability and instrumental systematics. One avenue for investigating these effects is the use of small solar telescopes which direct disk-integrated sunlight to these EPRV instruments, observing the Sun at high cadence over months or years. We have designed and built a solar feed system to carry out {"}Sun-as-a-star{"}observations with NEID, a very high precision Doppler spectrometer recently commissioned at the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The NEID solar feed has been taking observations nearly every day since 2020 December; data is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute NEID Solar Archive: https://neid.ipac.caltech.edu/search_solar.php. In this paper, we present the design of the NEID solar feed and explanations behind our design intent. We also present early radial velocity (RV) results which demonstrate NEID's RV stability on the Sun over 4 months of commissioning: 0.66 m s-1 rms under good sky conditions and improving to 0.41 m s-1 rms under best conditions. ",

author = "Lin, {Andrea S. J.} and Andrew Monson and Suvrath Mahadevan and Ninan, {Joe P.} and Samuel Halverson and Colin Nitroy and Bender, {Chad F.} and Logsdon, {Sarah E.} and Shubham Kanodia and Terrien, {Ryan C.} and Arpita Roy and Luhn, {Jacob K.} and Gupta, {Arvind F.} and Ford, {Eric B.} and Fred Hearty and Laher, {Russ R.} and Emily Hunting and McBride, {William R.} and {Salazar Rivera}, {Noah Isaac} and Jayadev Rajagopal and Wolf, {Marsha J.} and Paul Robertson and Wright, {Jason T.} and Blake, {Cullen H.} and Ca{\~n}as, {Caleb I.} and Emily Lubar and McElwain, {Michael W.} and Ramsey, {Lawrence W.} and Christian Schwab and Gudmundur Stefansson",

note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3847/1538-3881/ac5622",

language = "English",

volume = "163",

pages = "1--17",

journal = "Astronomical Journal",

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Lin, ASJ, Monson, A, Mahadevan, S, Ninan, JP, Halverson, S, Nitroy, C, Bender, CF, Logsdon, SE, Kanodia, S, Terrien, RC, Roy, A, Luhn, JK, Gupta, AF, Ford, EB, Hearty, F, Laher, RR, Hunting, E, McBride, WR, Salazar Rivera, NI, Rajagopal, J, Wolf, MJ, Robertson, P, Wright, JT, Blake, CH, Cañas, CI, Lubar, E, McElwain, MW, Ramsey, LW, Schwab, C & Stefansson, G 2022, 'Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed', Astronomical Journal, vol. 163, no. 4, 184, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ac5622

TY - JOUR

T1 - Observing the Sun as a star

T2 - design and early results from the NEID solar feed

AU - Lin, Andrea S. J.

AU - Monson, Andrew

AU - Mahadevan, Suvrath

AU - Ninan, Joe P.

AU - Halverson, Samuel

AU - Nitroy, Colin

AU - Bender, Chad F.

AU - Logsdon, Sarah E.

AU - Kanodia, Shubham

AU - Terrien, Ryan C.

AU - Roy, Arpita

AU - Luhn, Jacob K.

AU - Gupta, Arvind F.

AU - Ford, Eric B.

AU - Hearty, Fred

AU - Laher, Russ R.

AU - Hunting, Emily

AU - McBride, William R.

AU - Salazar Rivera, Noah Isaac

AU - Rajagopal, Jayadev

AU - Wolf, Marsha J.

AU - Robertson, Paul

AU - Wright, Jason T.

AU - Blake, Cullen H.

AU - Cañas, Caleb I.

AU - Lubar, Emily

AU - McElwain, Michael W.

AU - Ramsey, Lawrence W.

AU - Schwab, Christian

AU - Stefansson, Gudmundur

N1 - Copyright © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2022/4/1

Y1 - 2022/4/1

N2 - Efforts with extreme-precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments to detect small-amplitude planets are largely limited, on many timescales, by the effects of stellar variability and instrumental systematics. One avenue for investigating these effects is the use of small solar telescopes which direct disk-integrated sunlight to these EPRV instruments, observing the Sun at high cadence over months or years. We have designed and built a solar feed system to carry out "Sun-as-a-star"observations with NEID, a very high precision Doppler spectrometer recently commissioned at the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The NEID solar feed has been taking observations nearly every day since 2020 December; data is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute NEID Solar Archive: https://neid.ipac.caltech.edu/search_solar.php. In this paper, we present the design of the NEID solar feed and explanations behind our design intent. We also present early radial velocity (RV) results which demonstrate NEID's RV stability on the Sun over 4 months of commissioning: 0.66 m s-1 rms under good sky conditions and improving to 0.41 m s-1 rms under best conditions.

AB - Efforts with extreme-precision radial velocity (EPRV) instruments to detect small-amplitude planets are largely limited, on many timescales, by the effects of stellar variability and instrumental systematics. One avenue for investigating these effects is the use of small solar telescopes which direct disk-integrated sunlight to these EPRV instruments, observing the Sun at high cadence over months or years. We have designed and built a solar feed system to carry out "Sun-as-a-star"observations with NEID, a very high precision Doppler spectrometer recently commissioned at the WIYN 3.5 m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The NEID solar feed has been taking observations nearly every day since 2020 December; data is publicly available at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute NEID Solar Archive: https://neid.ipac.caltech.edu/search_solar.php. In this paper, we present the design of the NEID solar feed and explanations behind our design intent. We also present early radial velocity (RV) results which demonstrate NEID's RV stability on the Sun over 4 months of commissioning: 0.66 m s-1 rms under good sky conditions and improving to 0.41 m s-1 rms under best conditions.

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Observing the Sun as a star: design and early results from the NEID solar feed

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