SUMER-Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation

The instrument SUMER-Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation is designed to investigate structures and associated dynamical processes occurring in the solar atmosphere, from the chromosphere through the transition region to the inner corona, over a temperature range from 10 super(4) to 2 x 10 super(6) K and above. These observations will permit detailed spectroscopic diagnostics of plasma densities and temperatures in many solar features, and will support penetrating studies of underlying physical processes, including plasma flows, turbulence and wave motions, diffusion transport processes, events associated with solar magnetic activity, atmospheric heating, and solar wind acceleration in the inner corona. Specifically, SUMER will measure profiles and intensities of EUV lines; determine Doppler shifts and line broadenings with high accuracy; provide stigmatic images of the Sun in the EUV with high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution; and obtain monochromatic maps of the full Sun and the inner corona or selected areas thereof. SUMER will be flown on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), scheduled for launch in November, 1995. This paper has been written to familiarize solar physicists with SUMER and to demonstrate some command procedures for achieving certain scientific observations.