SynCOM: Synthetic Corona Outflow Model for the Heliophysics community
Abstract
Numerous methods for measuring coronal flow velocities have been developed over the years. These measurements are central to our understanding of the origin of the solar wind and serving to upcoming missions that address this problem, such as the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission. However, many of the existing flow tracking methods provide qualitatively reasonable outcomes, their quantitative validation across the wide range of coronal altitudes remains a problem. The lack of precise knowledge about the targeted velocity field is the primary obstacle, making it impossible to compare algorithms attempting to estimate flow parameters for the same coronal structure. To address this problem, we are designing the Synthetic Corona Outflow Model (SynCOM) an empirical data-driven model of a dynamic solar corona based on previous high-resolution observations. The SynCOM model mimics the transient and quasi-periodical behavior present in the actual solar corona, such as the one observed by STEREO-A/COR 2. The SynCOM outputs exhibit a true-to-life radial decay of the polarized brightness and include stochastic components accounting for physical fluctuations of plasma outflows and instrumental noise. Since the model has a predefined distribution of flow velocity and an adjustable signal-to-noise ratio, it can be used for testing a variety of data analysis methods used to measure coronal flows. Adjusting SynCOM settings for specific coronal conditions and instrumental parameters enables a straightforward comparison of accuracy and performance of different data analysis methods and measurement techniques designed to quantify velocity and acceleration in the corona. In this work, we will present examples of the application of SynCOM for verifying observational requirements for detecting coronal flows beyond the range of altitudes covered by previously operated coronagraphs; and benchmarking popular flow tracking codes used by the coronal physics community, and cross-validating their outputs.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMSH24C..06M