STEREOSCOPIC POLAR PLUME RECONSTRUCTIONS FROM STEREO/SECCHI IMAGES

Journal Article · Mon Jul 20 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/700/1/292; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21313897

Feng, L; Inhester, B; Solanki, S K; Wilhelm, K; Wiegelmann, T; Podlipnik, B ^[1]; Howard, R A; Plunkett, S P ^[2]; Wuelser, J P ^[3]; Gan, W Q ^[4]

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1. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Str.2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau (Germany)
2. Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7660, 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington DC 20375 (United States)
3. Solar and Astrophysics Lab., Lockheed Martin ATC, 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304 (United States)
4. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008 Nanjing (China)

We present stereoscopic reconstructions of the location and inclination of polar plumes of two data sets based on the two simultaneously recorded images taken by the EUVI telescopes in the SECCHI instrument package onboard the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory spacecraft. The 10 plumes investigated show a superradial expansion in the coronal hole in three dimensions (3D) which is consistent with the two-dimensional results. Their deviations from the local meridian planes are rather small with an average of 6.{sup 0}47. By comparing the reconstructed plumes with a dipole field with its axis along the solar rotation axis, it is found that plumes are inclined more horizontally than the dipole field. The lower the latitude is, the larger is the deviation from the dipole field. The relationship between plumes and bright points has been investigated and they are not always associated. For the first data set, based on the 3D height of plumes and the electron density derived from SUMER/SOHO Si VIII line pair, we found that electron densities along the plumes decrease with height above the solar surface. The temperature obtained from the density scale height is 1.6-1.8 times larger than the temperature obtained from Mg IX line ratios. We attribute this discrepancy to a deviation of the electron and the ion temperatures. Finally, we have found that the outflow speeds studied in the O VI line in the plumes corrected by the angle between the line of sight and the plume orientation are quite small with a maximum of 10 km s{sup -1}. It is unlikely that plumes are a dominant contributor to the fast solar wind.

• OSTI ID: 21313897
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 700; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
DATA ANALYSIS
DIPOLES
ELECTRON DENSITY
IMAGE PROCESSING
INCLINATION
ION TEMPERATURE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLUMES
SCALE HEIGHT
SOLAR ELECTRONS
SOLAR WIND
SUN
TELESCOPES