The Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST) for the ASO-S mission——Ⅰ. Scientific objectives and overview

As one of the payloads for the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory(ASO-S)mission,the Lyman-alpha(Lyα)Solar Telescope(LST)is aimed at imaging the Sun and the inner corona up to 2.5 R⊙(mean solar radius)in both the Lyα(121.6 nm)and visible wavebands with high temporo-spatial resolution,mainly targeting solar flares,coronal mass ejections(CMEs)and filaments/prominences.LST observations allow us to trace solar eruptive phenomena from the disk center to the inner corona,to study the relationships between eruptive prominences/filaments,solar flares and CMEs,to explore the dynamical processes and evolution of solar eruptions,to diagnose solar winds,and to derive physical parameters of the solar atmosphere.LST is actually an instrument suite,which consists of a Solar Disk Imager(SDI),a Solar Corona Imager(SCI),a White-light Solar Telescope(WST)and two Guide Telescopes(GTs).This is the first paper in a series of LST-related papers.In this paper,we introduce the scientific objectives,present an overview of the LST payload and describe the planned observations.The detailed design and data along with potential diagnostics are described in the second(Paper II)and third(Paper III)papers,respectively,appearing in this issue.

Can an injection model replenish filaments in a weak magnetic environment?

We observed an Hα surge that occurred in NOAA Active Region 12401 on 2015 August 17, and we discuss its trigger mechanism, and kinematic and thermal properties. It is suggested that this surge was caused by a chromospheric reconnection which ejected cool and dense material with transverse velocity of about 21–28 km s-1 and initial Doppler velocity of 12 km s^-1. This surge is similar to the injection of newly formed filament materials from their footpoints, except that the surge here occurred in a relatively weak magnetic environment of 100 G. Thus, we discuss the possibility of filament material replenishment via the erupting mass in such a weak magnetic field, which is often associated with quiescent filaments. It is found that the local plasma can be heated up to about 1.3 times the original temperature, which results in an acceleration of about –0.017 km s^-2. It can lift the dense material up to 10 Mm and higher with an inclination angle smaller than 50°, namely the typical height of active region filaments, but it can hardly inject the material up to those filaments higher than 25 Mm, like some quiescent filaments. Thus, we think that the injection model does not work well in describing the formation of quiescent filaments.