Abstract
We present a new network for space weather observation: Global Automatic Telescopes Exploring the SUN (GATES). GATES currently utilizes two primary instruments: the Mojave Solar Observatory (MSO), located in Apple Valley, California, and the Tor Vergata Solar Synoptic Telescope (TSST), which is undergoing testing at the optical bench of the Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata heliostat, prior to its planned deployment to La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. TSST consists of a dual-channel full disk telescope, a lab-tested K magneto-optical filter (MOF) channel and a Hα channel for flare detection and localization. MSO houses a dual Na and K channel MOF-based telescope currently able to observe on-sky. With the completion and installation of the TSST, the two nodes will observe for an average of 20 hours a day, obtaining line-of-sight velocity and magnetic field vector observations (Dopplergrams and magnetograms, respectively), which we will use to analyze and predict space weather events. We present preliminary data obtained using the network’s individual nodes and technical specifications for the future operation of the network as a whole.