Invited speakers

Dr. Frédéric Auchère’s main research interests are the physics of the corona and the solar wind. After completing his PhD at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and postdoctoral fellowships in the United States and in France, Auchère rose to lead key roles in European solar missions. He is currently PI and co-PI of respectively the SPICE and EUI instruments on board ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. He is actively involved in the development of the next generation of space solar instruments.

Abstract:

The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission, launched in February 2020, continues to deliver unprecedented high-resolution observations of the Sun and its dynamic atmosphere. This presentation highlights recent findings from two of Solar Orbiter’s key remote sensing instruments: the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE).

EUI provides high-cadence, high-resolution imaging of the solar atmosphere in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, capturing fine-scale structures such as coronal bright points, nano jets, and small-scale eruptions with exceptional clarity.

Complementing EUI, SPICE offers spectrally resolved data across a range of emission lines formed at different temperatures, enabling the measurement of plasma velocities and composition from the chromosphere to the corona.

In particular, coordinated observations between EUI and SPICE have allowed the identification and characterization of transition region upflows and their connection to overlying coronal structures. These findings are further contextualized with magnetic field extrapolations and comparisons with in situ data during close perihelion passages.

Leonardo Abbene is Associate Professor in Applied Physics at the Department of Physics and Chemistry Emilio Segrè at University of Palermo, Italy. He earned a Master’s degree from University of Palermo and a doctorate in Experimental Physics from the University of Bari, Italy. His research activities are mainly focused on the development and characterization of room temperature semiconductor radiation detectors (CdTe, CZT) and digital electronics for X-ray and gamma ray spectroscopy and imaging. He was the principal investigator (PI) of several research projects, where innovative instrumentation has been developed for medical (mammography, computed tomography, BNCT, nuclear medicine), astrophysical (focal plane detectors for X-ray telescopes), food and nuclear (kaonic atom physics) applications. He is author and co-author of over 100 research papers in international journals and conferences. Prof. Abbene is reviewer and editorial board member for several international journals.

Abstract:

 In the last two decades, great efforts have been made in the development of new-generation X-ray and gamma ray detection systems based on room temperature semiconductor detectors (RTSDs), allowing direct radiation detection and superb room temperature performance. Among RTSDs, cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe or CZT) represents the leading detector material: the combination of high atomic number (Zmax = 52) and wide bandgap (1.6 eV), together with the continuous progress in crystal growth and device technology, gives high detection efficiency within few millimetres and excellent room-temperature energy resolution. The current state of art in developing CdZnTe detectors will be presented, with particular focusing on new CdZnTe-based detection systems, recently developed at University of Palermo (Italy). Several detector prototypes will be presented, designed for applications in nuclear medicine, food inspections and precision X-ray measurements in accelerator environments.