Scaling of the electron dissipation range of solar wind turbulence

Electron scale solar wind turbulence has attracted great interest in recent years. Clear evidences have been given from the Cluster data that turbulence is not fully dissipated near the proton scale but continues cascading down to the electron scales. However, the scaling of the energy spectra as well as the nature of the plasma modes involved at those small scales are still not fully determined. Here we survey 10 years of the Cluster search-coil magnetometer (SCM) waveforms measured in the solar wind and perform a statistical study of the magnetic energy spectra in the frequency range [$1, 180$]Hz. We show that a large fraction of the spectra exhibit clear breakpoints near the electon gyroscale $\rho_e$, followed by steeper power-law like spectra. We show that the scaling below the electron breakpoint cannot be determined unambiguously due to instrumental limitations that will be discussed in detail. We compare our results to recent ones reported in other studies and discuss their implication on the physical mechanisms and the theoretical modeling of energy dissipation in the SW.Comment: 10 pages, submitte

Recent Developments of NEMO: Detection of Solar Eruptions Characteristics

The recent developments in space instrumentation for solar observations and telemetry have caused the necessity of advanced pattern recognition tools for the different classes of solar events. The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) of solar corona on-board SOHO spacecraft has uncovered a new class of eruptive events which are often identified as signatures of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) initiations on solar disk. It is evident that a crucial task is the development of an automatic detection tool of CMEs precursors. The Novel EIT wave Machine Observing (NEMO) (http://sidc.be/nemo) code is an operational tool that detects automatically solar eruptions using EIT image sequences. NEMO applies techniques based on the general statistical properties of the underlying physical mechanisms of eruptive events on the solar disc. In this work, the most recent updates of NEMO code - that have resulted to the increase of the recognition efficiency of solar eruptions linked to CMEs - are presented. These updates provide calculations of the surface of the dimming region, implement novel clustering technique for the dimmings and set new criteria to flag the eruptive dimmings based on their complex characteristics. The efficiency of NEMO has been increased significantly resulting to the extraction of dimmings observed near the solar limb and to the detection of small-scale events as well. As a consequence, the detection efficiency of CMEs precursors and the forecasts of CMEs have been drastically improved. Furthermore, the catalogues of solar eruptive events that can be constructed by NEMO may include larger number of physical parameters associated to the dimming regions.Comment: 12 Pages, 5 figures, submitted to Solar Physic

Particle kinetic analysis of a polar jet from SECCHI COR data

Aims. We analyze coronagraph observations of a polar jet observed by the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instrument suite onboard the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. Methods. In our analysis we compare the brightness distribution of the jet in white-light coronagraph images with a dedicated kinetic particle model. We obtain a consistent estimate of the time that the jet was launched from the solar surface and an approximate initial velocity distribution in the jet source. The method also allows us to check the consistency of the kinetic model. In this first application, we consider only gravity as the dominant force on the jet particles along the magnetic field. Results. We find that the kinetic model explains the observed brightness evolution well. The derived initiation time is consistent with the jet observations by the EUVI telescope at various wavelengths. The initial particle velocity distribution is fitted by Maxwellian distributions and we find deviations of the high energy tail from the Maxwellian distributions. We estimate the jet's total electron content to have a mass between 3.2 \times 1014 and 1.8 \times 1015 g. Mapping the integrated particle number along the jet trajectory to its source region and assuming a typical source region size, we obtain an initial electron density between 8 \times 109 and 5 \times 1010 cm-3 that is characteristic for the lower corona or the upper chromosphere. The total kinetic energy of all particles in the jet source region amounts from 2.1 \times 1028 to 2.4 \times 1029 erg.Comment: A&A, in pres

2D and 3D Polar Plume Analysis from the Three Vantage Positions of STEREO/EUVI A, B, and SOHO/EIT

Polar plumes are seen as elongated objects starting at the solar polar regions. Here, we analyze these objects from a sequence of images taken simultaneously by the three spacecraft telescopes STEREO/EUVI A and B, and SOHO/EIT. We establish a method capable of automatically identifying plumes in solar EUV images close to the limb at 1.01 - 1.39 R in order to study their temporal evolution. This plume-identification method is based on a multiscale Hough-wavelet analysis. Then two methods to determined their 3D localization and structure are discussed: First, tomography using the filtered back-projection and including the differential rotation of the Sun and, secondly, conventional stereoscopic triangulation. We show that tomography and stereoscopy are complementary to study polar plumes. We also show that this systematic 2D identification and the proposed methods of 3D reconstruction are well suited, on one hand, to identify plumes individually and on the other hand, to analyze the distribution of plumes and inter-plume regions. Finally, the results are discussed focusing on the plume position with their cross-section area.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, Solar Physics articl

Solar Coronal Plumes

Polar plumes are thin long ray-like structures that project beyond the limb of the Sun polar regions, maintaining their identity over distances of several solar radii. Plumes have been first observed in white-light (WL) images of the Sun, but, with the advent of the space era, they have been identified also in X-ray and UV wavelengths (XUV) and, possibly, even in in situ data. This review traces the history of plumes, from the time they have been first imaged, to the complex means by which nowadays we attempt to reconstruct their 3-D structure. Spectroscopic techniques allowed us also to infer the physical parameters of plumes and estimate their electron and kinetic temperatures and their densities. However, perhaps the most interesting problem we need to solve is the role they cover in the solar wind origin and acceleration: Does the solar wind emanate from plumes or from the ambient coronal hole wherein they are embedded? Do plumes have a role in solar wind acceleration and mass loading? Answers to these questions are still somewhat ambiguous and theoretical modeling does not provide definite answers either. Recent data, with an unprecedented high spatial and temporal resolution, provide new information on the fine structure of plumes, their temporal evolution and relationship with other transient phenomena that may shed further light on these elusive features

Classification of Objects by the Analysis of the Acoustic Response to an Impact

In this paper, we present a method which allows classifying objects on the basis of the analysis of the acoustic response to an impact, with the final objective being the quality control in a tile manufacturing company.</p