37-element solar adaptive optics for 26-cm solar fine structure telescope at Yunnan Astronomical Observatory

A 37-element solar adaptive optics （AO） system was built and installed at the 26-cm solar fine structure telescope of Yunnan Astronomical Observatory. The AO system is composed of a fine tracking loop with a tip/tilt mirror and a correlation tracker, a high-order correction loop with a 37-element deformable mirror, a correlating Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor based on the absolute difference algorithm, and a real time controller. The system was completed on Sep. 28, 2009 and was used to obtain AO-corrected high-resolution solar images. The contrast and resolution of the images are clearly improved after wavefront correction by AO. To the best of out knowledge, this system is the first solar AO system in China.

Climatological analysis of the seeing at Fuxian Solar Observatory

There is a significant seasonal variation in the seeing of Fuxian Solar Observatory(FSO). The seeing in summer and autumn is better than that in winter and spring. The overall seeing is divided into the boundary layer seeing and free atmosphere seeing to investigate the climatic phenomena or meteorological events that might lead to seasonal variation in the seeing. The overall seeing was measured by the solar difference image motion monitor(SDIMM). The boundary layer seeing is calculated from the temperature difference between air and water. The analysis results show that the seasonal variation in seeing is caused by the alternation of subtropical high and westerly jet. The decrease of seeing in winter and spring at FSO is probably related to the westerly jet. A complete analysis of the seeing at FSO is given in this paper. It is also the first time to describe FSO's boundary layer seeing and its measurement method.

First generation solar adaptive optics system for 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope at Fuxian Solar Observatory

The first generation solar adaptive optics （AO） system, which consists of a fine tracking loop with a tip-tilt mirror （TTM） and a correlation tracker, and a high-order correction loop with a 37-element deformable mirror （DM）, a correlating Shack-Hartmann （SH） wavefront sensor （WFS） based on the ab- solute difference algorithm and a real time controller （RTC）, has been developed and installed at the 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope （NVST） that is part of Fuxian Solar Observatory （FSO）. Compared with the 37-element solar AO system developed for the 26-cm Solar Fine Structure Telescope, administered by Yunnan Astronomical Observatories, this AO system has two updates： one is the subaperture arrangement of the WFS changed from square to hexagon; the other is the high speed camera of the WFS and the corre- sponding real time controller. The WFS can be operated at a frame rate of 2100 Hz and the error correction bandwidth can exceed 100 Hz. After AO correction, the averaged residual image motion and the averaged RMS wavefront error are reduced to 0.06＂ and 45 nm, respectively. The results of on-sky testing obser- vations demonstrate better contrast and finer structures of the images taken with AO than those without AO.

The first observation and data reduction of the Multi-wavelength Spectrometer on the New Vacuum Solar Telescope

The Multi-wavelength Spectrometer is a medium-dispersion（R^130 000）grating spectrometer installed on the New Vacuum Solar Telescope at the Fuxian Solar Observatory,Yunnan Astronomical Observatory,Chinese Academy of Sciences.It is designed to accurately observe the velocity and magnetic fields of the Sun.The present configuration of this spectrometer allows us to simultaneously observe three different solar spectral lines.This work is dedicated to showing the first observations carried out in both the Hαand Ca II 8542 A lines.We give a detailed description of the data reduction process,focusing on the retrieval of a flat field from the high-resolution spectral data.Two different methods are also performed and compared to eliminate the residual fringe in the reduced data.The real spectral resolution and instrumental profile are analyzed based on the final results,which indicate that this spectrometer presently satisfies the expected performance and it is ready for further scientific observations.

Searching for the Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data ReleaseⅠ

Observing and timing a group of millisecond pulsars with high rotational stability enables the direct detection of gravitational waves(GWs).The GW signals can be identified from the spatial correlations encoded in the times-of-arrival of widely spaced pulsar-pairs.The Chinese Pulsar Timing Array(CPTA)is a collaboration aiming at the direct GW detection with observations carried out using Chinese radio telescopes.This short article serves as a“table of contents”for a forthcoming series of papers related to the CPTA Data Release 1(CPTA DR1)which uses observations from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope.Here,after summarizing the time span and accuracy of CPTA DR1,we report the key results of our statistical inference finding a correlated signal with amplitude logA_(c)=-14.4_(-2.8)^(+1.0)for spectral index in the range ofα∈[-1.8,1.5]assuming a GW background(GWB)induced quadrupolar correlation.The search for the Hellings–Downs(HD)correlation curve is also presented,where some evidence for the HD correlation has been found that a 4.6σstatistical significance is achieved using the discrete frequency method around the frequency of 14 n Hz.We expect that the future International Pulsar Timing Array data analysis and the next CPTA data release will be more sensitive to the n Hz GWB,which could verify the current results.

A new multi-wavelength solar telescope: Optical and Near-infrared Solar Eruption Tracer (ONSET)

A new multi-wavelength solar telescope, the Optical and Near-infrared Solar Eruption Tracer （ONSET） of Nanjing University, has been constructed. It was fabricated at the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics ＆ Technology, and the oper- ation is jointly administered with Yunnan Astronomical Observatory. ONSET is able to observe the Sun in three wavelength windows： He I 10830 A, Ha and white-light at 3600 A and 4250 A, which are selected in order to simultaneously record the dynam- ics of the corona, chromosphere and photosphere respectively. Full-disk or partial-disk solar images with a field of 10~ at three wavelengths can be obtained nearly simultane- ously. It is designed to trace solar eruptions with high spatial and temporal resolutions. This telescope was installed at a new solar observing site near Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province, southwest China. The site is located at E102N24, with an altitude of 1722 m. The seeing is stable and has high quality. We give a brief description of the scientific objectives and the basic structure of ONSET. Some preliminary results are also pre- sented.

Phase analysis of sunspot group numbers on both solar hemispheres

Cross-correlation analysis and wavelet transform methods are proposed to investigate the phase relationship between the monthly sunspot group numbers in the solar northern and southern hemispheres. It is found that （1） the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere begin two months earlier than those in the southern one, which should lead to phase asynchrony between them but with a slight effect; （2） the Schwabe cycle length for the monthly sunspot group numbers in the two hemispheres obviously differs from each other, and the mean Schwabe cycle length of the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere is slightly larger than that in the southern one; （3） the monthly sunspot group numbers in the northern hemisphere precede those in the southern hemisphere during the years of about 1874- 1927, after which, the southern hemisphere leads the northern hemisphere in the years 1928-1964, and then the northern hemisphere leads in time till the present.

A new way to measure the departure from thermodynamic equilibrium in stellar atmospheres

A new way to measure the departure from thermodynamic equilibrium is proposed based on the departure factor which evaluates the deviation from a Boltzmann level distribution, used by Short and Hauschildt （2005） and others. The way is based on an explicit relationship describing the departure factor as a function of line to continuum source, dynamic temperature and line photon frequency, under three assumptions that the scattering can be neglected, the background continuum can be treated as a Planck function, and finally the complete redistribution can be true. It has the advantage that the departure can be very conveniently evaluated from the spectral analysis with only the radiative transfer involved. Some physical insights are recovered for some extreme cases. Some example calculations of the departure are presented for the quiet Sun, faint solar flare and strong solar flare for the generally used solar chromospheric lines： Hα, Hβ, CaII H, K and triplet. It is revealed that in the case of solar flares, the departure is less than thermodynamic equilibrium along the larger depth range than in the quiet sun due to chromospheric condensation. It becomes hard to distinguish the departures for the different lines of the same atom or ion. It is expected that this investigation can be constructive for studying stellar atmospheres in cases where the three assumptions are close to reality.

LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (LEGUE)——The survey's science plan

We describe the current plans for a spectroscopic survey of millions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy using the Guo Shou Jing Telescope （GSJT, formerly calledthe Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope -- LAMOST）. The survey will obtain spectra for 2.5 million stars brighter than r 〈 19 during dark/grey time, and 5 million stars brighter than r 〈 17 or J 〈 16 on nights that are moonlit or have low transparency. The survey will begin in the fall of 2012, and will run for at least four years. The telescope＇s design constrains the optimal declination range for observations to 10~ 〈 di 〈 50~, and site conditions lead to an emphasis on stars in the direction of the Galactic anticenter. The survey is divided into three parts with different target selection strategies： disk, anticenter, and spheroid. The resulting dataset will be used to study the merger history of the Milky Way, the substructure and evolution of the disks, the nature of the first generation of stars through identification of the lowest metallicity stars, and star formation through study of open clusters and OB associations. Detailed design of the LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration （LEGUE） survey will be completed in summer 2012, after a review of the results of the pilot survey.

Magneto-induced Line Broadening of Magneto-sensitive Lines in Solar Magnetized Atmospheres

We analyze the spectral line broadening of those magneto-sensitive lines in solar magnetized atmospheres. The broadening at the line wings is due to the increase of the effective width of energy levels involved in Zeeman splitting,and the broadening at the line core also originated in Zeeman splitting under the condition that the Zeeman components are mixed. Therefore, the magneto-induced or Zeeman broadening take effects on the whole line. The observed Stokes parameter data in a sunspot and outside it acquired by Solar Stokes Spectrum Telescope （S^3T） are analyzed for the demonstration of this mechanism, and the Zeeman broadening rates are calculated for Fe16302.5 under some assumptions.Our result shows that the broadening is increased as the magnetic field strength becomes stronger, but the rate of increase at the line core is decreased as the field strength increases, while the rate at the wing does not show such an obvious regularity. The broadening is more effective in the line core than in the wings.

Long-term hemispheric variation of the flare index

The long-term hemispheric variation of the flare index is investigated. It is found that, （1） the phase difference of the flare index between the northern and southern hemispheres is about 6-7 months, which is near the time delay between flare activity and sunspot activity; （2） both the dominant and phase-leading hemisphere of the flare index is the northern hemisphere in the considered time interval, implying that the hemispheric asynchrony of solar activity has a close connection with the N-S asymmetry of solar activity.

Discovery of six high-redshift quasars with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope and the Multiple Mirror Telescope

Quasars with redshifts greater than 4 are rare, and can be used to probe the structure and evolution of the early universe. Here we report the discovery of six new quasars with i-band magnitudes brighter than 19.5 and redshifts between 2.4 and 4.6 from spectroscopy with the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (YFOSC) at the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope in February, 2012. These quasars are in the list of z > 3.6 quasar candidates selected by using our proposed J K/i Y criterion and the photometric redshift estimations from the SDSS optical and UKIDSS near-IR photometric data. Nine candidates were observed by YFOSC, and five among six new quasars were identified as z > 3.6 quasars. One of the other three objects was identified as a star and the other two were unidentified due to the lower signal-to-noise ratio of their spectra. This is the first time that z > 4 quasars have been discovered using a telescope in China. Thanks to the Chinese Telescope Access Program (TAP), the redshift of 4.6 for one of these quasars was confirmed by the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) Red Channel spectroscopy. The continuum and emission line properties of these six quasars, as well as their central black hole masses and Eddington ratios, were obtained.

The site conditions of the Guo Shou Jing Telescope

The weather at the Xinglong Observing Station, where the Guo Shou Jing Telescope （GSJT） is located, is strongly affected by the monsoon climate in north- east China. The LAMOST survey strategy is constrained by these weather patterns. We present statistics on observing hours from 2004 to 2007, and the sky brightness, seeing, and sky transparency from 1995 to 2011 at the site. We investigate effects of the site conditions on the survey plan. Operable hours each month show a strong cor- relation with season： on average there are eight operable hours per night available in December, but only one-two hours in July and August. The seeing and the sky trans- parency also vary with season. Although the seeing is worse in windy winters, and the atmospheric extinction is worse in the spring and summer, the site is adequate for the proposed scientific program of the LAMOST survey. With a Monte Carlo simulation using historical data on the site condition, we find that the available observation hours constrain the survey footprint from 22h to 16h in right ascension; the sky brightness allows LAMOST to obtain a limiting magnitude of V = 19.5 mag with S/N= 10.

A coarse-to-fine strategy for the registration of the multi-wavelength high-resolution solar images

The registration of multi-wavelength high-resolution solar images is an important task in the research of solar physics. This paper proposed a coarse-to-fine strategy to realize the accurate registration of high-resolution photospheric images and chromospheric images observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope(NVST) whose field-of-view is about 2′~ 3′, and the spatial resolution can reach 0.1′′after image reconstruction. In this strategy, the full-disk solar images with relatively lower resolution taken by other space-or ground-based telescopes are taken as transition images, and the Fourier-Merlin transform,Template matching and a local statistical information based algorithm are used in combination. After registration, the geometric transformation between multi-wavelength images of NVST are corrected at the level of sub-arcseconds, including the rotation, scaling and translation relations. Two sets of data observed in active regions(i.e., the NOAA 11982 and the NOAA 12673) are used to illustrate our method step by step.The result shows that the registration accuracy can reach less than 1′′. Moreover, this work also has facilitated the combination of high-resolution observations of NVST with the continuum, ultraviolet passbands and magnetic field observations of the Solar Dynamic Observation(SDO), which is highly beneficial to the multi-instrument joint measurement of solar activities.

Infrared Polarization and Beaming Effect for BL Lac Objects

With the idea of the beaming models,we derive a relation between the observed polarization and Doppler-corrected magnitude,that is,the observed polarization is in anti-correlation with the Doppler-corrected magnitude.Making use of the infrared data observed simultaneously by Impey et al.[Mon.Not.R.Astron.Soc.200(1982)19;209(1984)245]and Holmes et al.[ibid.210(1984)961]we found that(1)there is a significant correlation between the observed maximum polarization and Doppler-corrected magnitude but the polarization is not in anti-correlation with the Doppler corrected magnitude;(2)the maximum infrared polarization is strongly correlated with the maximum optical polarization.Our conclusion is that the infrared polarization depends only on the degree of ordering of the magnetic field in the synchotron emission regions and not on the beaming effect.Both infrared and optical emissions originate from the synchrotron radiation.

Relativistic Beaming Effect of γ-Ray Emission from γ-Ray-Loud Blazars

We have studied the luminosity-timescales relation 0f29 γ-ray-loud blazars with observed minimum variation timescales. Following the acceleration model of Ghisellini and Maraschi (1989 Astrophys. J. 340 189), a relation between the variation of the timescale in γ-rays and that in other wavebands has been derived. Both the observed and Doppler-corrected γ-ray luminosity-time scales relations have been calculated. The observed luminosity of the majority of sources is above the Eddington limit. The intrinsic luminosity of all sources is below the Eddington limit, suggesting that the γ-ray emission of the γ-ray-loud blazar originates from relativistic jets.

An algorithm for preferential selection of spectroscopic targets in LEGUE

We describe a general target selection algorithm that is applicable to any survey in which the number of available candidates is much larger than the number of objects to be observed. This routine aims to achieve a balance between a smoothly- varying, well-understood selection function and the desire to preferentially select cer- tain types of targets. Some target-selection examples are shown that illustrate differentpossibilities of emphasis functions. Although it is generally applicable, the algorithm was developed specifically for the LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration （LEGUE） survey that will be carried out using the Chinese Guo Shou Jing Telescope. In particular, this algorithm was designed for the portion of LEGUE targeting the Galactic halo, in which we attempt to balance a variety of science goals that require stars at fainter magnitudes than can be completely sampled by LAMOST. This algorithm has been implemented for the halo portion of the LAMOST pilot sur- vey, which began in October 2011.

Observation of solar coronal heating powered by magneto-acoustic oscillations in a moss region

In this paper,we report the observed temporal correlation between extreme-ultraviolet(EUV)emission and magneto-acoustic oscillations in an EUV moss region,which is the footpoint region only connected by magnetic loops with million-degree plasma.The result is obtained from a detailed multiwavelength data analysis of the region with the purpose of resolving fine-scale mass and energy flows that come from the photosphere,pass through the chromosphere and finally heat the solar transition region or the corona.The data set covers three atmospheric levels on the Sun,consisting of high-resolution broad-band imaging at TiO 7057 A and the line of sight magnetograms for the photosphere,high-resolution narrowband images at helium 110830 A for the chromosphere and EUV images at 171 A for the corona.The10830 A narrow-band images and the TiO 7057 A broad-band images are from a much earlier observation on 2012 July 22 with the 1.6 meter aperture Goode Solar Telescope(GST)at Big Bear Solar Observatory(BBSO)and the EUV 171 A images and the magnetograms are from observations made by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly(AIA)or Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager(HMI)onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory(SDO).We report the following new phenomena:(1)Repeated injections of chromospheric material appearing as 10830 A absorption are squirted out from inter-granular lanes with a period of~5 minutes.(2)EUV emissions are found to be periodically modulated with similar periods of~5 minutes.(3)Around the injection area where 10830 A absorption is enhanced,both EUV emissions and strength of the magnetic field are remarkably stronger.(4)The peaks on the time profile of the EUV emissions are found to be in sync with oscillatory peaks of the stronger magnetic field in the region.These findings may give a series of strong evidences supporting the scenario that coronal heating is powered by magneto-acoustic waves.

LAMOST Time-Domain survey:first results of four K2 plates

From Oct.2019 to Apr.2020,LAMOST performed a time-domain(TD)spectroscopic survey of four K2 plates with both low-and medium-resolution observations.The low-resolution spectroscopic survey acquired 282 exposures(≈46.6 h)over 25 nights,yielding a total of about 767000 spectra,and the medium-resolution survey took 177 exposures(≈49.1 h)over 27 nights,collecting about 478000 spectra.More than 70%/50%of low-resolution/medium-resolution spectra have signal-to-noise ratio higher than 10.We determine stellar parameters(e.g.,Teff,log g,[Fe/H])and radial velocity(RV)with different methods,including LASP,DD-Payne and SLAM.In general,these parameter estimations from different methods show good agreement,and the stellar parameter values are consistent with those of APOGEE.We use the Gaia DR2 RV values to calculate a median RV zero point(RVZP)for each spectrograph exposure by exposure,and the RVZP-corrected RVs agree well with the APOGEE data.The stellar evolutionary and spectroscopic masses are estimated based on the stellar parameters,multi-band magnitudes,distances and extinction values.Finally,we construct a binary catalog including about 2700 candidates by analyzing their light curves,fitting the RV data,calculating the binarity parameters from medium-resolution spectra and cross-matching the spatially resolved binary catalog from Gaia EDR3.The LAMOST TD survey is expected to represent a breakthrough in various scientific topics,such as binary systems,stellar activity,stellar pulsation,etc.

Chirality of Eruptive Neutral Line Indicated by Bipolar Double Dimmings

As a key on-disk proxy of coronal mass ejection （CME）, bipolar double dimmings （BDDs） during eruption of filament or coronal sigmoid are explained to mark footpoints of a flux rope. One thus expects the configuration of BDDs to be linked with chirality of associated filament or sigmoid. In the paper, we investigate four events in association with BDDs and halo or partial halo CMEs. In each hemisphere, two neutral lines （NLs） underlying eruptive filament or sigmoid are presented, in which one obeys and another disobeys the well-known hemispheric chirality rule. Between two possible configurations of BDDs for an eruptive NL, we find that only one, depending on the chirality of the NL, can occur. By considering axial orientation of BDDs as from the positive dimming to the negative one, and by defining ＂dextral/sinistral BDDS＂ as the axial orientation having rightward/leftward component parallel to the NL to an observer at its positive-polarity side, eruptive dextral/sinistral NLs have no-exception correlation with dextral/sinistral BDDs. It is also found that dextral/sinistral BDDs can invariably undergo clockwise/counterclockwise rotation. These observations suggest that configurations and rotations of BDDs also have chirality patterns that are consistent with that of the associated filaments, sigmoids, and their environments.