Translational Tomography with WISPR: Basis of Method and Current Progress
Abstract
We present first steps toward "translational tomography" of the solar corona, using images that WISPR has captured in recent perihelia. Our method relies on known perspective changes due to the rapid trajectory of PSP through the solar corona near perihelion. The method allows extraction of feature location and large-scale structure near the track of the spacecraft itself. To produce the inversions, we neglect local proper motions and model the apparent kinematics of a stationary solar wind feature, from WISPR's point of view. This family of analytic functions serves as a partial basis for the vector space of WISPR image sequences; a change-of-basis operation yields the initial tomogram. For initial analyses we confine ourselves to the ribbon of material whose length runs along the track of the spacecraft and whose width runs perpendicular to that track (locally horizontal). We present the basics of the method and initial test results from a pre-flight model and from three recent perihelion passes. Future work includes regularization of the basis vectors and improvement of the basic proof-of-concept inversions. The tool will grow in utility as the orbital distances decrease in future encounters.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMSH42A..07K