Using SONG to probe rapid variability and evolution of starspots

The Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) is being developed as a network of 1-meter spectroscopic telescopes designed for and primarily dedicated to asteroseismology. It is patterned after the highly successful GONG project. The Danish prototype telescope will be installed in Tenerife in early 2011. Ultimately we hope to have as many as 8 identical nodes providing continuous high-resolution spectroscopic observations for targets anywhere in the sky. The primary scientific goals of SONG are asteroseismology and the search for Earth-mass exoplanets. The spectroscopic requirements for these programs push the limits of current technology, but the resulting spectrograph design will enable many secondary science programs with less stringent requirements. Doppler imaging of starspots can be accomplished using continuous observations over several stellar rotations using identical instrumentation at each node. It should be possible to observe the evolution of starspot morphology in real-time, for example. We discuss the design and status of the SONG project in general, and we describe how SONG could be used to probe short timescale changes in stellar surface structure.