P. Paul Hick

Three-Dimensional Tomography of Interplanetary Disturbances

We have developed a Computer Assisted Tomography (CAT) program that modifies a three-dimensional kinematic heliospheric model to fit interplanetary scintillation (IPS) or Thomson scattering observations. The tomography program iteratively changes this global model to least-squares fit the data. Both a corotating and time-dependent model can be reconstructed. The short time intervals of the time-dependent modeling (to shorter than 1 day) force the heliospheric reconstructions to depend on outward solar wind motion to give perspective views of each point in space accessible to the observations, allowing reconstruction of interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) as well as corotating structures. We show these models as velocity or density Carrington maps and remote views. We have studied several events, including the 2000 July 14 Bastille-Day halo CME and several intervals using archival Cambridge IPS data, and we have also used archival Helios photometer data to reproduce the heliosphere. We check our results by comparison with additional remote-sensing observations, and in-situ observations from near-Earth spacecraft. A comparison of these observations and the Earth forecasts possible using them is available in real time on the World Wide Web using IPS data from the Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Japan.

Large-Scale Active Coronal Phenomena in Yohkoh SXT Images – IV. Solar Wind Streams from Flaring Active Regions

We demonstrate limb events on the Sun in which growing flare loop systems are embedded in hot coronal structures looking in soft X-rays like fans of coronal rays. These structures are formed during the flare and extend high into the corona. We analyze one of these events, on 28–29 August 1992, which occurred in AR 7270 on the eastern limb, and interpret these fans of rays either as temporary multiple ministreamers or plume-like structures formed as a result of restructuring due to a CME. We suggest that this configuration reflects mass flow from the active region into interplanetary space. This suggestion is supported by synoptic maps of solar wind sources constructed from scintillation measurements which show a source of enhanced solar wind density at the position of AR 7270, which disappears when 5 days following the event are removed from the synoptic map data. We also check synoptic maps for two other active regions in which existence of these fan-like structures was indicated when the active regions crossed both the east and west limbs of the Sun, and both these regions appear to be sources of a density enhancement in the solar wind.

Heliospheric tomography: an algorithm for the reconstruction of the 3D solar wind from remote sensing observations

Over the past years we have developed a tomographic technique for using heliospheric remote sensing observations (i.e. interplanetary scintillation and Thomson scattering data) for the reconstruction of the three-dimensional solar wind density and velocity in the inner heliosphere. We describe the basic algorithm on which our technique is based. To highlight the details of the reconstruction algorithm we specifically emphasize the implementation of corotating tomography using IPS g-level and IPS velocity observations as proxies for the solar wind density and velocity, respectively. We provide some insight into the modifications required to expand the technique into a fully time-dependent tomography, and to use Thomson scattering brightness (instead of g-level) as a proxy for the solar wind density.

A Search for Early Optical Emission at Gamma-Ray Burst Locations by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) views nearly every point on the sky once every 102 minutes and can detect point sources as faint as R ~ 10 mag. Therefore, SMEI can detect or provide upper limits for the optical afterglow from gamma-ray bursts in the tens of minutes after the burst, when different shocked regions may emit optically. Here we provide upper limits for 58 bursts between 2003 February and 2005 April.

Analysis of the comparative responses of SMEI and LASCO

Surface-brightness responses of the SOHO-LASCO C3 coronagraph and of the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) are compared, using measurements of a selection of bright stars that have been observed in both instruments. Seventeen stars are selected that are brighter than 4.5 magnitudes, are not known variables, and do not have a neighboring bright star. Comparing observations of these determines a scaling relationship between surface-brightness measurements from one instrument to those from the other. We discuss units of surface brightness for the two instruments, and estimate a residual uncertainty for the present scaling relationship.

Post-flare coronal arches observed with the SMM/XRP flat crystal spectrometer

The phenomenon of post-flare coronal arches, initially discovered with the Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (HXIS), was investigated using observations made with the SMM Flat Crystal Spectrometer (FCS) on 20 through 23 January, 1985. Since these observations were made with a different type of instrument from HXIS, they provide independent information on the physical characteristics of the arch phenomenon and extend our knowledge to lower coronal temperatures.Conspicuous arch activity was observed after three flares and after a disturbance which could not be identified. (1) A dynamic flare starting on 20 January at 20: 39 UT was responsible for the formation of the primary arch structure. (2) An arch revival, showing characteristics very similar to those of the arch revivals observed with HXIS, took place after the dynamic flare starting on 21 January at 23: 50 UT. The most conspicious difference relates to the moving thermal disturbance observed very shortly after the onset of the parent flare, in particular to its propagation velocity. This difference in the arch revival is probably related to the different range of plasma temperatures covered by the FCS observations (3 × 106 K through 6 × 106 K) and the HXIS observations (>107 K) and the consequently more important effects of radiative cooling in the FCS arch revival. (3) More arch activity was observed after a (possibly dynamic) flare starting at 03: 40 UT on 21 January and (4) after an unidentified event with estimated time of occurrence near 23: 00 UT on 22 January. Similar to the arch revival, this activity was primarily characterized by the energization of (i.e., input of energy to) a pre-existing arch structure. The activity after the unidentified event suggests the existence of a mode of arch activation which is different from the ‘typical’ flare-associated revival and is characterized by the absence of significant activity at chromospheric levels.

Thermal structures associated with post-flare coronal arches

Shortly after the dynamic flare of 14 ∶ 44 UT on 6 November, 1980, which initiated the second revival in the sequence of post-flare coronal arches of 6–7 November, a moving thermal disturbance was observed in the fine field of view of HXIS. From 15 ∶ 40 UT until about 18 UT, when it left the field of view, the disturbance rose into the corona, as indicated by a projected velocity of 7.4 km s-1 in the south-east direction. The feature was located above the reconnection region of the dynamic flare and was apparently related to the revived coronal arch. Observations in the coarse field of view after 18 UT revealed a temperature maximum in the revived arch, rising with a velocity of 7.0 km s-1 directly in continuation of the thermal disturbance. The rise velocity of the disturbance was initially (at least until 17 ∶ 20 UT) very similar to the rise velocities observed for the post-flare loop tops of the parent flare. This suggests that the rise of the reconnection point, in the Kopp and Pneuman (1976) mechanism responsible for the rise of the loop tops, also dictates the rise of the disturbance. From energy requirements it follows that in this phase the disturbed region is still a separate magnetic ‘island’, thermally isolated from the old arch structure and the post-flare loops. After 18 UT the rise of the post-flare loop tops slowed down to 2 km s-1, which is significantly slower than the rise of the brightness and temperature maxima of the revived arch in the coarse field of view. Thus in this phase the Kopp and Pneuman mechanism is no longer directly responsible for the rise of the thermal structure and the rise possibly reflects the merging of the old and the new arch structures.A similar thermal disturbance was observed after the dynamic flare of 07: 53 UT on 4 June, 1980. On the other hand, the confined flare of 17 ∶ 25 UT on 6 November, 1980, did not show this phenomenon. Apparently this type of disturbance occurs after dynamic flares only, in particular when the flare is associated with an arch revival.

The stationary post-flare arch of May 21/22, 1980

On May 21/22, 1980 the Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer aboard the SMM imaged an extensive coronal structure after the occurrence of a two-ribbon flare on May 21, 20:50 UT. The structure was observed from 22:20 UT on May 21 until its disappearence at 09:00 UT on May 22.At 22:20 UT the brightest pixel in the arch was located at a projected altitude of 95 000 km above the zero line of the longitudinal magnetic field. At 23:02 UT the maximum of brightness shifted to a neighbouring pixel with approximately the same projected altitude. This sudden shift indicates that the X-ray structure consisted of (at least) two separate arches at approximately the same altitude, one of which succeeded the other as the brightest arch in the structure at 23:02 UT.From 23:02 UT onwards the maximum of brightness did not change its position in the HXIS coarse field of view. With a spatial resolution of 32″ this places an upper limit of 1.1 km s-1 on the rise velocity of the arch. Thus, contrary to a similar arch observed on November 6/7, where rise velocities of the order of 10 km s-1 were measured in the same phase of development, the May 22 arch was a stationary structure at an altitude of ≈ 145000 km.The following values were estimated for the physically relevant quantities of the May 21/22 arch at the time of its maximum brightness (≈23:00 UT): temperature T ≈6.3 × 106 K, electron density ne≈ 1.1 × 109 cm-3, total emitting volume V ≈5 × 1029 cm3, energy density ɛ ≈2.9 erg cm−3, total energy contents E ≈ 1.4 × 1030 erg, total mass M ≈ 9 × 1014 g.The top of the arch was observed at ≈ 145 000 km altitude within 1.5 hr after the flare occurrence. Since it seems unlikely that the structure already existed prior to the flare at 20:50 UT, the arch must have risen to its stationary position with an average velocity exceeding 17 km s−1 (possibly much faster). We speculate that the arch was formed very fast at the flare onset, when (part of) the active region loop system was elevated within minutes to the observed altitude.

Large-Scale Active Coronal Phenomena in YOHKOH SXT Images. III. Enhanced Post-Flare Streamer

We demonstrate several events where an eruptive flare close to the limb gave rise to a transient coronal streamer visible in X-rays in Yohkoh SXT images, and analyze one of these events, on 28–29 October 1992, in detail. A coronal helmet streamer began to appear 2 hours after the flare, high above rising post-flare loops; the streamer became progressively narrower, reaching its minimum width 7–12 hours after the flare, and widened again thereafter, until it eventually disappeared. Several other events behaved in a similar way. We suggest that the minimum width indicates the time when the streamer became fully developed. All the time the temperature in the helmet streamer structure was decreasing, which can explain the subsequent fictitious widening of the X-ray streamer. It is suggested that we may see here two systems of reconnection on widely different altitudes, one giving rise to the post-flare loops while the other creates (or re-forms) the coronal helmet streamer. A similar interpretation was suggested in 1990 by Kopp and Polettofor post-flare giant arches observed on board the SMM; indeed, there are some similarities between these post-flare helmet streamers and giant arches and, with the low spatial resolution of SMM instruments, it is possible that some helmet streamers could have been considered to be a kind of a giant arch.

Corotational Tomography of Heliospheric Features Using Global Thomson Scattering Data

The Air Force/NASA Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) will provide two-dimensional images of the sky in visible light with high (0.1%) photometric precision, and unprecedented sky coverage and cadence. To optimize the information available from these images they must be interpreted in three dimensions. We have developed a Computer Assisted Tomography (CAT) technique that fits a three-dimensional kinematic heliospheric model to remotely-sensed Thomson scattering observations. This technique is designed specifically to determine the corotating background solar wind component from data provided by instruments like SMEI. Here, we present results from this technique applied to the Helios spacecraft photometer observations. The tomography program iterates to a least-squares solution of observed brightnesses using solar rotation, spacecraft motion and solar wind outflow to provide perspective views of each point in space covered by the observations. The corotational tomography described here is essentially the same as used by Jackson etxa0al. (1998) for the analysis of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations. While IPS observations are related indirectly to the solar wind density through an assumed (and uncertain) relationship between small-scale density fluctuations and density, Thomson scattering physics is more straightforward, i.e., the observed brightness depends linearly on the solar wind density everywhere in the heliosphere. Consequently, Thomson scattering tomography can use a more direct density-convergence criterion to match observed Helios photometer brightness to brightness calculated from the model density. The general similarities between results based on IPS and Thomson scattering tomography validate both techniques and confirm that both observe the same type of solar wind structures. We show results for Carrington rotation 1653 near solar minimum. We find that longitudinally segmented dense structures corotate with the Sun and emanate from near the solar equator. We discuss the locations of these dense structures with respect to the heliospheric current sheet and regions of activity on the solar surface.