A Comparison among Solar Diameter Measurements Carried Out from the Ground and outside Earth's Atmosphere

Abstract

The solar diameter has been measured since the 17th century, using different methods and instruments, and without a clear strategy of measurement, which could explain the lack of coherence between the results obtained. The present study confirms that the discrepancies between solar diameter measurements are mostly due to differences in instrumental characteristics, the spectral domain of observation of each investigation, and atmospheric turbulence for ground measurements. We show that correcting the measurements for the effects introduced by the properties of each instrument reduces the differences between the radius measurements to the level of uncertainty of each instrument. This study makes use of simulated and real data. For the simulated data, we use an empirical model of the solar limb shape, and for observations, we use measurements carried out with the Solar Disk Sextant experiment, the CCD solar astrolabe of Calern Observatory, and the Michelson Doppler Imager on board SOHO.