Abstract We use computer assisted tomography (CAT) techniques to reconstruct the three-dimensional shapes of coronal mass ejections in the interplanetary medium. Thomson scattering of sunlight from electrons is assumed to be the source of variations in observed brightness in data provided by the HELIOS spacecraft zodiacal light photometers and by the SOLWIND coronagraph. Polarization measurements from the spacecraft yield additional information about line-of-sight electron densities not normally present in usual CAT-scan techniques. Here we use the technique to determine the density of a mass ejection which arose from the Sun on 7 May 1979. The HELIOS and coronagraph perspective views are not simultaneous; the HELIOS 16° photometer observes to as close a height as 17R⊙ from the Sun, whereas the SOLWIND observations extend outward to sky plane distances of only 10R⊙. However, if radial velocities for the ejected material are assumed, and that, as an approximation, the velocity of outward-moving material at a given height is everwhere the same, we obtain a solution. The least-squares solution provides the velocity of the material with height as well as a three-dimensional density distribution. The material of the mass ejection appears to accelerate at solar distances as great as 10R⊙.
Three-dimensional reconstruction of coronal mass ejections
Advances in Space Research ; 9 , 4 ; 69-74
1989-01-01
6 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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