WISPR Imaging of a Pristine CME

The Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) on board the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observed a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2018 November 1, the first day of the initial PSP encounter. The speed of the CME, approximately 200-300 km s^-1 in the WISPR field of view, is typical of slow, streamer blowout CMEs. This event was also observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment (LASCO) coronagraphs. WISPR and LASCO view remarkably similar structures that enable useful cross-comparison between the two data sets as well as stereoscopic imaging of the CME. An analysis is extended to lower heights by linking the white-light observations to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, which reveal a structure that erupts more than a full day earlier before the CME finally gathers enough velocity to propagate outward. This EUV feature appears as a brightness enhancement in cooler temperatures, such as 171 Å, but as a cavity in nominal coronal temperatures, such as 193 Å. By comparing this circular, dark feature in 193 Å to the dark, white-light cavity at the center of the eruption in WISPR and LASCO, this is one coherent structure is seen to exist prior to the eruption in the low corona before entering the heliosphere and likely corresponds to the core of the magnetic flux rope. It is also believed that the relative weakness of the event contributed to the clarity of the flux rope in WISPR, as the CME did not experience impulsive forces or strong interaction with external structures that can lead to more complex structural evolution.