A new high speed, high dynamic range CCD camera has been developed in collaboration with Xedar Inc. (Boulder CO). This instrument was developed for the RISE/PSPT project and uses a new Thomson 2K x 2K CCD array. NSO has purchased one 2K x 2K camera for general use at NSO/SP and plans to purchase a second 2K x 2K unit as funds become available.
The first two camera units have been received at NSO/SP and have passed preliminary tests. A detailed performance characterization is currently being performed. The 2K x 2K cameras have a linear well depth of about 200,000 e-, with a read noise of about 34 e- when operated at a read rate of 8 Mpix/s. The camera electronics allow a second fiber optic connection to a Sun/SPARC controller that will allow a total readout rate of 16 Mpix/s. The cameras can also be used in a 1K x 1K mode using on-chip binning. The data can be stored to Exabyte tape or hard disk. A fast, high capacity DLT tape drive will also be available for the 2K x 2K system. The first of these cameras is available on a shared risk basis for observations during the spring 1997 quarter at NSO/SP. The first observing run, which used the 2K x 2K camera behind the UBF to study acoustic flux events in the solar photosphere, was successfully carried out in January 1997.
Jeff Kuhn, Thomas Rimmele, Fritz Stauffer