Developed at the Observatoire de la C^ote dAzur (OCA) within the framework of the PICARD space mission (Thuillier et al., 2006) and with support from the french spatial agency (CNES), MISOLFA (Moniteur dImages Solaires Franco-Algerien) is a new gener
ation of daytime turbulence monitor. Its objective is to measure both the spatial and temporal turbulence parameters in order to quantify their effects on the solar diameter measurements that will be made from ground using the qualification model of the SODISM (SOlar Diameter Imager and Surface Mapper) instrument onboard PICARD. The comparison of simultaneous images from ground and space should allow us, with the help of the solar monitor, to find the best procedure possible to measure solar diameter variations from ground on the long term. MISOLFA is now installed at the Calern facility of OCA and PICARD is scheduled to be launched in 2010. We present here the principles of the instrument and the first results obtained on the characteristics of the turbulence observed at Calern observatory using this monitor while waiting for the launch of the space mission.
PICARD is a CNES micro-satellite launched in June 2010 (Thuillier at al. 2006). Its main goal is to measure the solar shape, total and spectral irradiance during the ascending phase of the activity cycle. The SODISM telescope onboard PICARD also allo
ws us to conduct a program for helioseismology in intensity at 535.7 nm (Corbard et al. 2008). One-minute cadence low-resolution full images are available for a so-called medium-$l$ program, and high-resolution images of the limb recorded every 2 minutes are used to study mode amplification near the limb in the perspective of g-mode search. First analyses and results from these two programs are presented here.
