CME Induced Thermodynamic Changes in the Corona as Inferred from Fe XI and Fe XIV Emission Observations during the 2017 August 21 Total Solar Eclipse
Abstract
We present the first remote sensing observations of the impact from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on the thermodynamic properties of the solar corona between 1 and 3 Rs. Measurements of the Fe XI (789.2 nm) and Fe XIV (530.3 nm) emission were acquired with identical narrow-bandpass imagers at three observing sites during the 2017 August 21 Total Solar Eclipse. Additional continuum emission observations at 788.0 nm and 529.0 nm were used to isolate line emission. The total distance between sites along the path of totality was 1400 km, corresponding to a difference of 28 minutes between the times of totality at the first and last site. These observations were used to measure the Fe XI and Fe XIV emission relative to the background continuum scattering, as well as the temporal variations of the emission between observing sites. The relative abundance of Fe10+ and Fe13+ was inferred and used to compute Te via theoretical ionization equilibrium abundance values. There were changes throughout much of the corona in the ionic emission and inferred Te between the sites as a result of the fortuitous passage of a CME during the eclipse. The Fe XI and Fe XIV ionic emission commonly changed by a factor >2 along individual lines of sight, and the inferred Te values were found to change by up to 0.3 x 10^6 K. These results underscore the unique advantage of multi-site and multi-wavelength total solar eclipse observations for probing the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of the corona over an uninterrupted distance range of 1 - 3 Rs.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMSH11C3393B
- Keywords:
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- 7509 Corona;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7513 Coronal mass ejections;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY;
- 7594 Instruments and techniques;
- SOLAR PHYSICS;
- ASTROPHYSICS;
- AND ASTRONOMY