Off-limb EUV observations of the solar corona and transients with the CORONAS-F/SPIRIT telescope-coronagraph

The SPIRIT telescope aboard the CORONAS-F satellite (in orbit from 26 July 2001 to 5 December 2005), observed the off-limb solar corona in the 175 Å (Fe IX, X and XI lines) and 304 Å (He II and Si XI lines) bands. In the coronagraphic mode the mirror was tilted to image the corona at the distance of 1.1...5 <I>R</I><sub>sun</sub> from the solar center, the outer occulter blocked the disk radiation and the detector sensitivity was enhanced. This intermediate region between the fields of view of ordinary extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) telescopes and most of the white-light (WL) coronagraphs is responsible for forming the streamer belt, acceleration of ejected matter and emergence of slow and fast solar wind. We present here the results of continuous coronagraphic EUV observations of the solar corona carried out during two weeks in June and December 2002. The images showed a "diffuse" (unresolved) component of the corona seen in both bands, and non-radial, ray-like structures seen only in the 175 Å band, which can be associated with a streamer base. The correlations between latitudinal distributions of the EUV brightness in the corona and at the limb were found to be high in 304 Å at all distances and in 175 Å only below 1.5 <I>R</I><sub>sun</sub>. The temporal correlation of the coronal brightness along the west radial line, with the brightness at the underlying limb region was significant in both bands, independent of the distance. On 2 February 2003 SPIRIT observed an expansion of a transient associated with a prominence eruption seen only in the 304 Å band. The SPIRIT data have been compared with the corresponding data of the SOHO LASCO, EIT and UVCS instruments

Study of EUV Emission and Properties of a Coronal Streamer from PROBA2/SWAP, Hinode/EIS and Mauna Loa Mk4 Observations

Wide-field EUV telescopes imaging in spectral bands sensitive to 1 MK plasma on the Sun often observe extended ray-like coronal structures stretching radially from active regions to distances of 1.5-2Rsun, which represent the EUV counterparts of white-light streamers. To explain this phenomenon, we investigated the properties of a streamer observed on October 20-21, 2010 by the PROBA2/SWAP EUV telescope together with the Hinode/EIS spectrometer (HOP 165) and the Mauna Loa Mk4 white-light coronagraph. In the SWAP 174 A band comprising the Fe ix - Fe xi lines, the streamer was detected to a distance of 2Rsun. We assume that the EUV emission is dominated by collisional excitation and resonant scattering of monochromatic radiation coming from the underlying corona. Below 1.2Rsun, the plasma density and temperature were derived from the Hinode/EIS data by a line-ratio method. Plasma conditions in the streamer and in the background corona above 1.2Rsun from disk center were determined by forward-modeling the emission that best fit the observational data in both EUV and white light. It was found that plasma in the streamer above 1.2Rsun is nearly isothermal, with a temperature T=1.43+-0.08 MK. The hydrostatic scale-height temperature determined from the evaluated density distribution was significantly higher (1.72+-0.08 MK), which suggests the existence of outward plasma flow along the streamer. We conclude that, inside the streamer, collisional excitation provided more than 90% of the observed EUV emission; whereas, in the background corona, the contribution of resonance scattering became comparable with that of collisions at R > 2Rsun

The SWAP EUV Imaging Telescope Part I: Instrument Overview and Pre-Flight Testing

The Sun Watcher with Active Pixels and Image Processing (SWAP) is an EUV solar telescope on board ESA's Project for Onboard Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) mission launched on 2 November 2009. SWAP has a spectral bandpass centered on 17.4 nm and provides images of the low solar corona over a 54x54 arcmin field-of-view with 3.2 arcsec pixels and an imaging cadence of about two minutes. SWAP is designed to monitor all space-weather-relevant events and features in the low solar corona. Given the limited resources of the PROBA2 microsatellite, the SWAP telescope is designed with various innovative technologies, including an off-axis optical design and a CMOS-APS detector. This article provides reference documentation for users of the SWAP image data.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 1 movi

Analysis and interpretation of a fast limb CME with eruptive prominence, C-flare and EUV dimming

Coronal Mass ejections or CMEs are large dynamical solar-corona events. The mass balance and kinematics of a fast limb CME, including its prominence progenitor and the associated flare, will be compared with computed magnetic structures to look for their origin and effect. Multi-wavelength ground-based and space-borne observations are used to study a fast W-limb CME event of December 2, 2003, taking into account both on and off disk observations. Its erupting prominence is measured at high cadence with the Pic du Midi full H-alpha line-flux imaging coronagraph. EUV images from space instruments are processed including difference imaging. SOHO/LASCO images are used to study the mass excess and motions. A fast bright expanding coronal loop is identified in the region recorded slightly later by GOES as a C7.2 flare, followed by a brightening and an acceleration phase of the erupting material with both cool and hot components. The total coronal radiative flux dropped by 5 percent in the EUV channels, revealing a large dimming effect at and above the limb. The typical 3-part structure observed 1 hour later shows a core shaped similarly to the eruptive filament/prominence. The total measured mass of the escaping CME (1.5x10to16 g from C2 LASCO observations) definitely exceeds the estimated mass of the escaping cool prominence material although assumptions made to analyse the Ha erupting prominence, as well as the corresponding EUV darkening of the filament observed several days before, made this evaluation uncertain by a factor of 2. From the current free extrapolation we discuss the shape of the magnetic neutral surface and a possible scenario leading to an instability, including the small scale dynamics inside and around the filament.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure