The hydrogen Lyman-alpha plays a dominant role in the radiative energy transport in the lower transition region, and is important for the stud- ies of transition-region structure as well as solar wind origin. We investigate the Ly-alpha profiles obtained by SUMER in coronal holes and quiet Sun. In a subset of these observations, also the Hi Lyman-beta, Si iii, and O vi lines were (quasi-) simultaneously recorded. We find that the distances between the two peaks of Ly-alpha profiles are larger in coronal holes than in the quiet Sun, indicating a larger opacity in coronal holes. This difference might result from the different magnetic structures or the different radiation fields in the two regions. Most of the Ly-beta profiles in the coronal hole have a stronger blue peak, in contrast to those in quiet-Sun regions. Whilst in both regions the Ly-alpha profiles are stronger in the blue peak. Although the asymmetries are likely to be produced by differential flows in the solar atmosphere, their detailed formation processes are still unclear. The radiance ratio between Ly-alpha and Ly-beta decreases towards the limb in the coronal hole, which might be due to the different opacity of the two lines. We also find that the radiance distributions of the four lines are set by a combined effect of limb brightening and the different emission level between coronal holes and quiet Sun.
We extend earlier work by studying in the quiet Sun the line profiles of the hydrogen Lyman-alpha and Lyman-beta lines, which were obtained quasi-simultaneously in a raster scan near disk center. The self-reversal depths of the Ly-a and Ly-b profiles are quantified by measuring the maximum spectral radiances of the two horns and the minimum spectral radiance of the central reversal. The information on the asymmetries of the Ly-a and Ly-b profiles is obtained through the calculation of the 1st and 3rd-order moments of the line profiles. We find that the emissions of the Lyman lines tend to be m…
Context: The sharp temperature and density gradients in the coronal transition region are a challenge for models and observations. Aims: We set out to get linearly- and quadratically-weighted average electron densities in the region emitting the S VI lines, using the observed opacity and the emission measure of these lines. Methods: We analyze SoHO/SUMER spectroscopic observations of the S VI lines, using the center-to-limb variations and radiance ratios to derive the opacity. We also use the Emission Measure derived from radiance at disk center. Results: We get an opacity at S VI line center …
We present observations and results of radiance and irradiance studies completed by SoHO-SUMER during the past solar cycle. We find that the cycle variation in Ly-alpha irradiance as observed by e.g. UARS-SOLSTICE can not be explained by quiet sun radiance data, and conclude that the explanation must be related to differences in the Ly-alpha radiance of various solar features and changes in their fractional distribution over the solar cycle. Consequently, we studied the emission of the hydrogen Ly-alpha line in various solar features - for the first time observed by SUMER on disk in full resol…
We study the hydrogen Lyman emission in various solar features - now including Lyman-alpha observations free from geocoronal absorption - and investigate statistically the imprint of flows and of the magnetic field on the line profile and radiance distribution. As a new result, we found that in Lyman-alpha rasters locations with higher opacity cluster in the cell interior, while the network has a trend to flatter profiles. Even deeper self reversals and larger peak distances were found in coronal hole spectra. We also compare simultaneous Lyman-alpha and Lyman-beta profiles. There is an obviou…
We study the emission heights of the coronal bright points (BPs) above the photosphere in the bipolar magnetic loops that are apparently associated with them. As BPs are seen in projection against the disk their true emission heights are unknown. The correlation of the BP locations on the Fe XII radiance map from EIT with the magnetic field features (in particular neutral lines) was investigated in detail. The coronal magnetic field was determined by an extrapolation of the photospheric field to different altitudes above the disk. It was found that most BPs sit on or near a photospheric neutra…
Aims: Out of a novel observing technique, we publish for the first time, SoHO-SUMER observations of the true spectral line profile of hydrogen Lyman-alpha in quiescent prominences. With SoHO not being in Earth orbit, our high-quality data set is free from geocoronal absorption. We study the line profile and compare it with earlier observations of the higher Lyman lines and recent model predictions. Methods: We applied the reduced-aperture observing mode to two prominence targets and started a statistical analysis of the line profiles in both data sets. In particular, we investigated the shape …
For the first time, we present and discuss EUV radiances of the solar transition region (TR) and corona obtained during a solar cycle. The measurements were obtained with the SOHO/coronal diagnostic spectrometer (CDS) during the period from 1996 to 2010. We find that limb-brightening significantly affects any characterisation of the solar radiances. We present the limb-brightening function for the main lines and find that it does not change measurably during the cycle. We confirm earlier findings that the radiance histogram of the cooler lines have a well defined, log-normal quiet-Sun componen…
We present new measurements of the dependence of the Extreme Ultraviolet radiance on the total magnetic flux in active regions as obtained from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Using observations of nine active regions tracked along different stages of evolution, we extend the known radiance - magnetic flux power-law relationship ($I\proptoΦ^α$) to the AIA 335 Å passband, and the Fe XVIII 93.93 Å spectral line in the 94 Å passband. We find that the total unsigned magnetic flux divided by the polarity …
This work deals with the study of an erupting prominence embedded in the core of a CME and focuses on the derivation of the prominence plasma filling factor. We explore two methods to measure the prominence plasma filling factor that are based on the combination of visible-light and ultraviolet spectroscopic observations. Theoretical relationships for resonant scattering and collisional excitation are used to evaluate the intensity of the H I Lyman-α and Lyman-β lines, in two prominence points where simultaneous and cospatial LASCO-C2 and UVCS data were available. Thermodynamic and geometrical…
Visible-light observations of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) performed with coronagraphs and heliospheric imagers (in primis on board the SOHO and STEREO missions) have offered so far the best way to study the kinematics and geometrical structure of these fundamental events. Nevertheless, it has been widely demonstrated that only combination of multi-wavelength data (including X-ray spectra, EUV images, EUV-UV spectra, and radio dynamic spectra) can provide complete information on the plasma temperature and density distributions, non-thermal motions, magnetic fields, and other physical paramete…
Images taken in the band centered at 30.4 nm are routinely used to map the radiance of the He II Ly alpha line on the solar disk. That line is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, line in the EUV observed in the solar spectrum, and one of the few lines in that wavelength range providing information on the upper chromosphere or lower transition region. However, when observing the off-limb corona the contribution from the nearby Si XI 30.3 nm line can become significant. In this work we aim at estimating the relative contribution of those two lines in the solar corona around the minimum o…
The solar radiation in the Lyman-alpha spectral line of hydrogen plays a significant role in the illumination of chromospheric and coronal structures, such as prominences, spicules, chromospheric fibrils, cores of coronal mass ejections, and solar wind. Moreover, it is important for the investigation of the heliosphere, Earth's ionosphere, and the atmospheres of planets, moons, and comets. We derive a reference quiet-Sun Lyman-alpha spectral profile that is representative of the Lyman-alpha radiation from the solar disk during a minimum of solar activity. This profile can serve as an incident …
SuNeRF-CME: Physics-Informed Neural Radiance Fields for Tomographic Reconstruction of Coronal Mass Ejections
High Altitude Observatory, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research（高海拔观测台，美国国家科学基金会国家大气研究中心）；Institute of Physics, University of Graz（格拉茨大学物理研究所）；School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee（邓迪大学科学与工程学部）；Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford（牛津大学牛津机器人研究所）；Applied Intelligence and Data Analysis Group, School of Computer Science, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid（马德里理工大学计算机科学学院应用智能与数据分析组）；Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford（牛津大学工程科学系生物医学工程研究所）；Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院信息技术与电气工程系）；Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki（赫尔辛基大学计算机科学系）；Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), European Space Agency（欧洲空间局欧洲空间研究与技术中心）
To study the dynamics of coronal holes and the role of waves in the acceleration of the solar wind, spectral observations were performed over polar coronal hole regions with the SUMER spectrometer on SoHO and the EIS spectrometer on Hinode. Using these observations, we aim to detect the presence of propagating waves in the corona and to study their properties. The observations analysed here consist of SUMER spectra of the Ne VIII 770 A line (T = 0.6 MK) and EIS slot images in the Fe XII 195 A line (T = 1.3 MK). Using the wavelet technique, we study line radiance oscillations at different heigh…
We review the coronal visible and infrared lines, collecting previous observations, and comparing, whenever available, observed radiances with those predicted by various models: the quiet Sun, a moderately active Sun, and an active region as observed near the limb, around 1.1R$_{\odot}$. We also model the off-limb radiances for the quiet Sun case. We used the most up-to-date atomic data in CHIANTI version 8. The comparison is satisfactory, in that all of the strong visible lines now have a firm identification. We revise several previous identifications and suggest some new ones. We also list t…
We show how the observed hydrogen Balmer and Lyman emission lines constrain the modeling of quiescent solar prominences. We compare space observations of Lyman lines with ground-based observations of Balmer lines for quiescent solar prominences of comparable brightness defined by their H-beta emission. The effective number densities of hydrogen atoms emitting from the same upper level u deduced from the corresponding emerging Lyman and Balmer line emissions show large differences that diminish with increasing level number and converge at the highest level numbers. Hydrogen atoms excited in u=5…
The near-Earth space weather is driven by the quick release of magnetic free energy in the solar corona. Probing this extremely hot and rarified region of the extended solar atmosphere requires modeling the polarization of forbidden and permitted coronal lines. To this end, it is important to develop efficient codes to calculate the Stokes profiles that emerge from given three-dimensional (3D) coronal models, and this should be done taking into account the symmetry breaking produced by the presence of magnetic fields and non-radial solar wind velocities. We have developed such a tool with the …
A new generation of coronagraphs to study the solar wind and CMEs are being developed and launched. These coronagraphs will heavily rely on multi-channel observations where visible light (VL) and UV-EUV observations provide new plasma diagnostics. One of these instruments, Metis on board ESA-Solar Orbiter, will simultaneously observe VL and the UV Lyman-$α$ line. The number of neutral Hydrogen atoms (a small fraction of coronal protons) is a key parameter for deriving plasma properties such as temperature from the observed Lyman-$α$ line intensity. However, these measurements are significantly…
Joint Diagnostics of Circumsolar Sky Brightness Using Coronagraphic Measurements and Aerosol Optical Inversions at Mauna Loa
National Solar Observatory（国家太阳观测台）；High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research（高空观测站，美国国家大气研究中心）；Solar Scientific LLC（太阳科学有限责任公司）；Akamai Workforce Initiative, Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators, University of California Observatories（阿卡迈劳动力倡议，科学家与工程师教育研究所，加州大学天文台）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa（夏威夷大学马诺阿分校物理与天文学系）
Non-LTE Analysis of Pre-eruptive Prominence Plasma Parameters Effects on the Lyman-beta and Lyman-gamma Lines with Solar Orbiter SPICE Observations
University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学）；Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM（巴黎-萨克雷大学、巴黎西岱大学、法国原子能和替代能源委员会、法国国家科学研究中心、天体物理分子信息实验室）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心）
Ultraviolet spectroscopy of the extended solar corona is a powerful tool for measuring the properties of protons, electrons, and heavy ions in the accelerating solar wind. The large coronal holes that expand up from the north and south poles at solar minimum are low-density collisionless regions in which it is possible to detect departures from one-fluid thermal equilibrium. An accurate characterization of these departures is helpful in identifying the kinetic processes ultimately responsible for coronal heating. In this paper, Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) measurements of the H …
The solar transition region (TR), in which above the photosphere the tempera- ture increases rapidly and the density drops dramatically, is believed to play an important role in coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Long-lasting up-flows are present in the upper TR and interpreted as signatures of mass supply to large coronal loops in the quiet Sun. Coronal bright points (BPs) are local heating phenomena and we found a different Doppler-shift pattern at TR and coronal temperatures in one BP, which might be related to the twisted loop system. The dominant energy loss in the lower TR is t…
Extreme-ultraviolet and X-ray emissions from stellar coronae drive mass loss from exoplanet atmospheres, and ultraviolet emission from stellar chromospheres drives photo-chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres. Comparisons of the spectral energy distributions of host stars are, therefore, essential for understanding the evolution and habitability of exoplanets. The large number of stars observed with the MUSCLES, Mega-MUSCLES, and other recent HST observing programs has provided for the first time a large sample (79 stars) of reconstructed Lyman-alpha fluxes that we compare with X-ray fluxes to ide…
We investigate the scaling properties of the long-range temporal evolution and intermittency of SDO/AIA intensity observations in four solar environments: an active region core, a weak emission region, and two core loops. We use two approaches: the probability distribution function (PDF) of time series increments, and multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). Noise taints the results, so we focus on the 171 Angstrom waveband , which has the highest signal-to-noise ratio. The lags between pairs of wavebands distinguish between coronal versus transition region (TR) emission. In all p…
We present EIS/Hinode & SUMER/SoHO joint observations allowing the first spectroscopic detection of accelerating disturbances as recorded with coronal lines in inter-plume and plume regions of a polar coronal hole. From time-distance radiance maps, we detect the presence of propagating disturbances in a polar inter-plume region with a period of 15 to 20 min and a propagation speed increasing from 130+/-14 km/s just above the limb, to 330+/-140 km/s around 160" above the limb. These disturbances can also be traced to originate from a bright region of the on-disk part of the coronal hole where t…
The hydrogen Lyman lines ( 91.2 nm < lambda < 121.6 nm) are significant contributors to the radiative losses of the solar chromosphere, and are enhanced during flares. We have shown previously that the Lyman lines observed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory exhibit Doppler motions equivalent to speeds on the order of 30 km/s. But contrary to expectation, no dominant flow direction was observed, with both redshifts and blueshifts present. To understand the formation of the Lyman lines, particularly their Doppler motions, we have used the rad…
The Sun is the only star that we can spatially resolve and it can be regarded as a fundamental plasma laboratory of astrophysics. The solar transition region (TR), the layer between the solar chromosphere and corona, plays an important role in solar wind origin and coronal heating. Recent high-resolution observations made by SOHO, TRACE, and Hinode indicate that the TR is highly nonuniform and magnetically structured. Through a combination of spectroscopic observations and magnetic field extrapolations, the TR magnetic structures and plasma properties have been found to be different in coronal…
Coronal jets are short-lived eruptive features commonly observed in polar coronal holes and are thought to play a key role in the transfer of mass and energy into the solar corona. We describe unique contemporaneous observations of a coronal blowout jet seen by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager onboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft (SO/EUI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA). The coronal jet erupted from the south polar coronal hole, and was observed with high spatial and temporal resolution by both instruments. This enabled identification of the …
The hydrogen Lyman lines provide important diagnostic information about the dynamics of the chromosphere, but there have been few systematic studies of their variability during flares. We investigate Doppler shifts in these lines in several flares, and use these to calculate plasma speeds. We use spectral data from the Multiple EUV Grating Spectrograph B (MEGS-B) detector of the Extreme-Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) instrument on the Solar Dynamics Observatory. MEGS-B obtains full-disk spectra of the Sun at a resolution of 0.1nm in the range 37-105 nm, which we analyse using three i…
Very recent measurements of stellar winds are used to update relations between winds and coronal activity. New wind constraints include an upper limit of Mdot<0.1 Mdot_sun for Tau Ceti (G8 V), derived from a nondetection of astrospheric H I Lyman-alpha absorption. This upper limit is reported here for the first time, and represents the weakest wind constrained using the astrospheric absorption technique. A high mass loss rate measurement of Mdot=10 Mdot_sun for Delta Pav (G8 IV) from astrospheric Lyman-alpha absorption suggests stronger winds for subgiants than for main sequence stars of equiv…
The radiance and Doppler-shift distributions across the solar network provide observational constraints of two-dimensional modeling of transition-region emission and flows in coronal funnels. Two different methods, dispersion plots and average-profile studies, were applied to investigate these distributions. In the dispersion plots, we divided the entire scanned region into a bright and a dark part according to an image of Fe xii; we plotted intensities and Doppler shifts in each bin as determined according to a filtered intensity of Si ii. We also studied the difference in height variations o…
The last solar minimum has been unusually quiet compared to the previous minima (since space-based radiometric measurements are available). The Sun's magnetic flux was substantially lower during this minimum. Some studies also show that the total solar irradiance during the minimum after cycle 23 may have dropped below the values known from the two minima prior to that. For chromospheric and coronal radiation, the situation is less clear-cut. The Sun's 10.7\,cm flux shows a decrease of $\sim4\%$ during the solar minimum in 2008 compared to the previous minimum, but \ion{Ca}{II} K does not. Her…
During its sungrazing perihelion passage, comet ISON appeared in the field of view of the SUMER spectrometer and allowed unique observations at far-ultraviolet wavelengths with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report results of these observations completed on November 28, 2013, when the comet was only 2.82 R_Sun away from the Sun. Our data show the arrow-shaped dust tail in Ly-$α$ emission trailing behind the predicted position of the nucleus, but offset from the trajectory. We interpret the emission as sunlight that is scattered at micron-sized dust particles. We modeled the dust emis…
We have measured the physical properties of polar coronal holes from the minimum activity phase of solar cycle 23 (1996-1997) to the present minimum of solar cycle 24 (2007-2009) using the UVCS instrument on SOHO. Observations in H I Lyman alpha (121.6 nm) and O VI (103.2, 103.7 nm) provide spectroscopic diagnostics of proton and O5+ bulk outflow velocities and velocity distributions as a function of heliocentric distance above the poles of the Sun. These observations have allowed us to follow the changes in the physical properties of the polar coronal holes during solar cycle 23 and its appro…
Observations of the Sun's surface suggest a nonuniform radiated flux as related to the presence of bright active regions and darker coronal holes. The variations of the FUV/EUV source radiation can be expected to affect the Lyman-alpha backscatter glow measured by spaceborne instruments. In particular, inferring the heliolatitudinal structure of the solar wind from helioglow variations in the sky can be quite challenging if the heliolatitudinal structure of the solar FUV/EUV radiation is not properly included in the modeling of the heliospheric glow. We present results of analysis of the helio…
High resolution UV spectra of stellar H I Lyman-alpha lines from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) provide observational constraints on the winds of coronal main sequence stars, thanks to an astrospheric absorption signature created by the interaction between the stellar winds and the interstellar medium. We report the results of a new HST survey of M dwarf stars, yielding six new detections of astrospheric absorption. We estimate mass-loss rates for these detections, and upper limits for nondetections. These new constraints allow us to characterize the nature of M dwarf winds and their depende…
The X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) emissions from the low-mass stars significantly affect the evolution of the planetary atmosphere. However, it is, observationally difficult to constrain the stellar high-energy emission because of the strong interstellar extinction of EUV photons. In this study, we simulate the XUV (X-ray+EUV) emission from the Sun-like stars by extending the solar coronal heating model that self-consistently solves, with sufficiently high resolution, the surface-to-coronal energy transport, turbulent coronal heating, and coronal thermal response by conduction and radiat…
This work focuses on the combination of White Light (WL) and UV (Ly-alpha) coronagraphic images to demonstrate the capability to measure the solar wind speed in the inner corona directly with the ratio between these two images (a technique called "quick inversion method"), thus avoiding to account for the line-of-sight (LOS) integration effects in the inversion of data. After a derivation of the theoretical basis and illustration of the main hypotheses in the "quick inversion method", the data inversion technique is tested first with 1D radial analytic profiles, and then with 3D numerical MHD …
