Volume 259, Numbers 1-2, 123-141, DOI: 10.1007/s11207-009-9416-8Open Access

On 3D Reconstruction of Coronal Mass Ejections: I. Method Description and Application to SECCHI-COR Data

M. Mierla, B. Inhester, C. Marqué, L. Rodriguez, S. Gissot, A. N. Zhukov, D. Berghmans and J. Davila

From the issue entitled "STEREO Science Results at Solar Minimum | Guest Editors: E. R. Christian, M. L. Kaiser, T. A. Kucera, O. C. St. Cyr"

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Abstract

The data from SECCHI-COR1 and SECCHI-COR2 coronagraphs onboard the STEREO mission, which was launched in October 2006, provide us with the first-ever stereoscopic images of the Sun’s corona. These observations were found to be useful in inferring the three-dimensional structure of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their propagation direction in space. We apply four methods for reconstructing CMEs: i) Forward modeling technique; ii) Local correlation tracking (to identify the same feature in COR Ahead and COR Behind images) plus tie-point reconstruction technique; iii) Center of mass of the structures in a given epipolar plane plus tie-point reconstruction technique; iv) Polarization ratio technique. The four techniques are applied to three structured CMEs observed by COR1 and COR2 instruments, respectively, on 15 May 2007, 31 August 2007, and 25 March 2008. A comparison of the results obtained from the application of the four reconstruction algorithms is presented and discussed.

Keywords  Corona, structures - Coronal mass ejections, initiation and propagation

STEREO Science Results of Solar Minimum
Guest Editors: Eric R. Christian, Michael L. Kaiser, Therese A. Kucera, O.C. St. Cyr

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