We present a review of the observations of the solar F-corona from space with a special emphasis of the 25 years of continuous monitoring achieved by the LASCO-C2 and C3 coronagraphs. Our work ...includes images obtained by the navigation cameras of the
Clementine
spacecraft, the SECCHI/HI-1A heliospheric imager onboard STEREO-A, and the Wide Field Imager for Solar Probe onboard the
Parker Solar Probe
. The connection to the zodiacal light is considered based on ground- and space-based observations, prominently from the past
Helios
, IRAS, COBE, and IRAKI missions. The characteristic radiance profiles along the two symmetry axis of the “elliptically” shaped F-corona (aka equatorial and polar directions) follow power laws in the
5
∘
–
50
∘
range of elongation, with constant power exponents of −2.33 and −2.55. Both profiles connect extremely well to the corresponding standard profiles of the zodiacal light. The LASCO equatorial profile exhibits a shoulder implying a
≈
17
%
decrease of the radiance within
≈
10
R
⊙
that may be explained by the disappearance of organic materials within 0.3 AU. LASCO detected for the first time a secular variation of the F-corona, an increase at a rate of 0.46% per year of the integrated radiance in the LASCO-C3 field of view. This is likely the first observational evidence of the role of collisions in the inner zodiacal cloud. The temporal evolution of the integrated radiance in the LASCO-C2 field of view is more complex suggesting possible additional processes. Whereas it is well established that the F-corona is slightly redder than the Sun, the spectral variation of its color index is not yet well established. A composite of C2 and C3 images produced the LASCO reference map of the radiance of the F-corona from 2 to
30
R
⊙
and, by combining with ground-based measurements, the LASCO extended map from 1 to
6
R
⊙
. An upper limit of
0.03
R
⊙
is obtained for the offset between the center of the Sun and that of the F-corona with a most likely value of zero. The flattening index of the F-corona starts from zero at an elongation of
0.5
∘
±
0.01
∘
(
1.9
R
⊙
) and increases linearly with the logarithm of the elongation to connect to that of the zodiacal light with however a small hump related to the shoulder in the equatorial profile. The shape of the isophotes is best described by super-ellipses with an exponent linked to the flattening index. An ellipsoid model of the spatial density of interplanetary dust is solely capable of reproducing this shape, thus rejecting other classical models such as fan, and cosine. The plane of symmetry of the inner zodiacal cloud is strongly warped, its inclination increasing towards the planes of the inner planets and ultimately the solar equator. In contrast, its longitude of ascending node is found to be constant and equal to
87.6
∘
. LASCO did not detect any small scale structures such as putative rings occasionally reported during solar eclipses. The outer border of the depletion zone where interplanetary dust particles start to be affected by sublimation appears well constrained at
≈
19
R
⊙
. This zone extends down to
≈
5
R
⊙
, thus defining the boundary of the dust-free zone where the most refractory materials – likely moderately absorbing silicates – disappear.
The Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph LASCO‐C2 aboard SOHO has now completed 17 years (1996–2012) of quasi‐continuous white‐light imaging of the corona from 2.2 to 6.5 solar radii, thus ...allowing an unprecedented view of its evolution over a solar cycle and a half including the minima of solar cycles 22/23 and 23/24. The corrected and calibrated polarization sequences produce images of the radiance (B), the polarized radiance (pB), and the electron density Ne of the K corona, and, in turn, of their synoptic maps. Their temporal variations are quantified by integration first globally, then in the north and south hemispheres, and finally, in sectors of 30° latitudinal extent centered along the equatorial and polar directions. The global radiance of the K corona follows well the solar activity as described by the sunspot number and the radio flux and was 24% fainter during the minimum of solar cycle 23/24 than during that of cycle 22/23. However, the two hemispheres experienced different reductions, 17% for the north one and 29% for the south one. The equatorial sector suffered a drastic reduction of 44%, in remarkable agreement with the in situ measurements of Wind and ACE at 1 AU, whereas the north and south polar sectors did not experience much variation. Cycle 23 is estimated to have lasted 12 years and 3 months. Maximum conditions have been reached in the northern region, whereas the southern region is still lagging. Finally, the rate of coronal mass ejections follows well the solar activity.
Key Points
The global radiance of the K corona follows the activity pattern of the Sun
It is 24% fainter at the minimum of CY 23/24 compared to CY 22/23.
However the two hemispheres experienced different reductions
Contrary to acute pain, chronic pain does not serve as a warning signal and must be considered as a disease per se. This pathology presents a sensory and psychological dimension at the origin of ...affective and cognitive disorders. Being largely refractory to current pharmacotherapies, identification of endogenous systems involved in persistent and chronic pain is crucial. The amygdala is a key brain region linking pain sensation with negative emotions. Here, we show that activation of a specific intrinsic neuromodulatory system within the amygdala associated with type 4 metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu
) abolishes sensory and affective symptoms of persistent pain such as hypersensitivity to pain, anxiety- and depression-related behaviors, and fear extinction impairment. Interestingly, neuroanatomical and synaptic analysis of the amygdala circuitry suggests that the effects of mGlu
activation occur outside the central nucleus via modulation of multisensory thalamic inputs to lateral amygdala principal neurons and dorso-medial intercalated cells. Furthermore, we developed optogluram, a small diffusible photoswitchable positive allosteric modulator of mGlu
. This ligand allows the control of endogenous mGlu
activity with light. Using this photopharmacological approach, we rapidly and reversibly inhibited behavioral symptoms associated with persistent pain through optical control of optogluram in the amygdala of freely behaving animals. Altogether, our data identify amygdala mGlu
signaling as a mechanism that bypasses central sensitization processes to dynamically modulate persistent pain symptoms. Our findings help to define novel and more precise therapeutic interventions for chronic pain, and exemplify the potential of optopharmacology to study the dynamic activity of endogenous neuromodulatory mechanisms in vivo.
We report on the analysis of the temporal evolution of the solar corona based on 18.5 years (1996.0 – 2014.5) of white-light observations with the SOHO/LASCO-C2 coronagraph. This evolution is ...quantified by generating spatially integrated values of the K-corona radiance, first globally, then in latitudinal sectors. The analysis considers time series of monthly values and 13-month running means of the radiance as well as several indices and proxies of solar activity. We study correlation, wavelet time-frequency spectra, and cross-coherence and phase spectra between these quantities. Our results give a detailed insight on how the corona responds to solar activity over timescales ranging from mid-term quasi-periodicities (also known as quasi-biennial oscillations or QBOs) to the long-term 11 year solar cycle. The amplitude of the variation between successive solar maxima and minima (modulation factor) very much depends upon the strength of the cycle and upon the heliographic latitude. An asymmetry is observed during the ascending phase of Solar Cycle 24, prominently in the royal and polar sectors, with north leading. Most prominent QBOs are a quasi-annual period during the maximum phase of Solar Cycle 23 and a shorter period, seven to eight months, in the ascending and maximum phases of Solar Cycle 24. They share the same properties as the solar QBOs: variable periodicity, intermittency, asymmetric development in the northern and southern solar hemispheres, and largest amplitudes during the maximum phase of solar cycles. The strongest correlation of the temporal variations of the coronal radiance – and consequently the coronal electron density – is found with the total magnetic flux. Considering that the morphology of the solar corona is also directly controlled by the topology of the magnetic field, this correlation reinforces the view that they are intimately connected, including their variability at all timescales.
We report on an intensive observational campaign carried out with HARPS at the 3.6 m telescope at La Silla on the star CoRoT-7. Additional simultaneous photometric measurements carried out with the ...Euler Swiss telescope have demonstrated that the observed radial velocity variations are dominated by rotational modulation from cool spots on the stellar surface. Several approaches were used to extract the radial velocity signal of the planet(s) from the stellar activity signal. First, a simple pre-whitening procedure was employed to find and subsequently remove periodic signals from the complex frequency structure of the radial velocity data. The dominant frequency in the power spectrum was found at 23 days, which corresponds to the rotation period of CoRoT-7. The 0.8535 day period of CoRoT-7b planetary candidate was detected with an amplitude of 3.3 m s-1. Most other frequencies, some with amplitudes larger than the CoRoT-7b signal, are most likely associated with activity. A second approach used harmonic decomposition of the rotational period and up to the first three harmonics to filter out the activity signal from radial velocity variations caused by orbiting planets. After correcting the radial velocity data for activity, two periodic signals are detected: the CoRoT-7b transit period and a second one with a period of 3.69 days and an amplitude of 4 m s-1. This second signal was also found in the pre-whitening analysis. We attribute the second signal to a second, more remote planet CoRoT-7c . The orbital solution of both planets is compatible with circular orbits. The mass of CoRoT-7b is $4.8\pm0.8$ ($M_{\oplus}$) and that of CoRoT-7c is $8.4\pm 0.9$ ($M_{\oplus}$), assuming both planets are on coplanar orbits. We also investigated the false positive scenario of a blend by a faint stellar binary, and this may be rejected by the stability of the bisector on a nightly scale. According to their masses both planets belong to the super-Earth planet category. The average density of CoRoT-7b is $\rho=5.6\pm 1.3\mathrm{\,g\,cm^{-3}}$, similar to the Earth. The CoRoT-7 planetary system provides us with the first insight into the physical nature of short period super-Earth planets recently detected by radial velocity surveys. These planets may be denser than Neptune and therefore likely made of rocks like the Earth, or a mix of water ice and rocks.
The ARTEMIS-I catalog of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) was initially developed on a first generation of low-resolution synoptic maps constructed from the SOHO/LASCO-C2 images of the K-corona and ...resulted in an online database listing all events detected since January 1996 (Boursier
et al.
,
Solar Phys.
257
, 125,
2009
). A new generation of synoptic maps with higher temporal (a factor of 1.5) and angular (a factor of 2.5) resolutions allowed us to reconsider the question of CME detection and resulted in the production of a new catalog: ARTEMIS-II. The parameters estimated for each detected CME are still the date and time of appearance, the position angle, the angular width, and (when detected at several solar distances) the global and median velocities. The new synoptic maps correct for the limited number of velocity determinations reported in the ARTEMIS-I catalog. We now determine the propagation velocity of 79 % of detected CMEs instead of 30 % in the previous version. A final major improvement is the estimation of the mass and kinetic energy of all CMEs for which we could determine the velocity, that is ≈ 13 000 CMEs until December 2010. Individual comparisons of velocity determination of 23 CMEs for which a full three-dimensional kinematical solution has been published indicate that ARTEMIS-II performs extremely well except at the highest velocities, an intrinsic limitation of our method. Finally, individual comparisons of mass determination of seven CMEs for which a robust solution has been obtained from stereographic observations demonstrate the quality of the ARTEMIS-II results.
We present a photometric calibration of the SOHO/LASCO-C2 coronagraph based on the analysis of all stars down to magnitude
V
=8 that transited its field of view during the past 14 years of operation ...(1996 – 2009), extending the previous work of Llebaria, Lamy, and Danjard (
Icarus
182
, 281,
2006
). The pre-processing of the images incorporates the most recent determination of the evolution of the LASCO-C2 performances. The automatic procedure then analyzes some 260 000 images to detect, locate, and measure those stars. Aperture photometry is performed using four different aperture sizes, and the zero points (ZPs) of the photometric transformations between the LASCO-C2 magnitudes for its orange filter and the standard
V
magnitudes are determined after introducing a correction for the color of the stars. A new statistical method (“bootstrap”) is introduced to assess the confidence intervals of the mean yearly value of the ZPs. The correction for finite aperture required to derive the calibration coefficient for the surface photometry of extended sources is based on the reconstructed image of bright saturated stars and a robust model for the growth curve. The global temporal evolution of the sensitivity of LASCO-C2 is compatible with a continuous decrease at a rate of ≈ 0.56 % per year. However, it is better described by two separate linear variations with a discontinuity at the time of the loss of SOHO. After the resumption of normal operations in 1999, the linear decrease of the sensitivity amounts to ≈ 0.35 % per year.
Context. The CoRoT space mission routinely provides high-precision photometric measurements of thousands of stars that have been continuously observed for months. Aims. The discovery and ...characterization of the first very massive transiting planetary companion with a short orbital period is reported. Methods. A series of 34 transits was detected in the CoRoT light curve of an F3V star, observed from May to October 2007 for 152 days. The radius was accurately determined and the mass derived for this new transiting, thanks to the combined analysis of the light curve and complementary ground-based observations: high-precision radial-velocity measurements, on-off photometry, and high signal-to-noise spectroscopic observations. Results. CoRoT-Exo-3b has a radius of 1.01 pm 0.07 R_{Jup} and transits around its F3-type primary every 4.26 days in a synchronous orbit. Its mass of 21.66 pm 1.0 M_{Jup}, density of 26.4 pm 5.6 g cm super(-3), and surface gravity of log g = 4.72 clearly distinguish it from the regular close-in planet population, making it the most intriguing transiting substellar object discovered so far. Conclusions. With the current data, the nature of CoRoT-Exo-3b is ambiguous, as it could either be a low-mass brown-dwarf or a member of a new class of "superplanets". Its discovery may help constrain the evolution of close-in planets and brown-dwarfs better. Finally, CoRoT-Exo-3b confirms the trend that massive transiting giant planets (M ge 4 M_{Jup}) are found preferentially around more massive stars than the Sun.
We report on automated procedures for correcting the images of the LASCO coronagraph for i) spurious quasi-point-sources such as the impacts of cosmic rays, stars, and planets, and ii) the absence of ...signal due to transmission errors or dropouts, which results in blocks of missing information in the images. Correcting for these undesirable artifacts is mandatory for all quantitative works on the solar corona that require data inversion and/or long series of images, for instance. The nonlinear filtering of spike noise or point-like objects is based on mathematical morphology and implements the procedure opening by morphological reconstruction. However, a simple opening filter is applied whenever the fractional area of corrupted pixels exceeds 50 % of the original image. We describe different strategies for reconstructing the missing information blocks. In general, it is possible to implement the method of averaged neighbors using the two images obtained immediately before and after the corrupted image. For the other cases, and in particular when missing blocks overlapped in three images, we developed an original procedure of weighted interpolation along radial profiles from the center of the Sun that intercept the missing block(s). This procedure is also adequate for the saturated images of bright planets (such as Venus) that bleed along the neighboring pixels. Missing blocks in polarized images may generally be reconstructed using the associated unpolarized image of the same format. But in the case of overlapping missing blocks, we implemented our procedure of weighted interpolation. All tests performed on numerous LASCO-C2 images at various periods of solar activity (
i.e.
varying complexity of the structure of the corona) demonstrate the excellent performance of these new procedures, with results vastly superior to the methods implemented so far in the pipeline-processing of the LASCO images.
Context. The CoRoT mission, a pioneer in exoplanet searches from space, has completed its first 150 days of continuous observations of similar to 12 000 stars in the galactic plane. An analysis of ...the raw data identifies the most promising candidates and triggers the ground-based follow-up. Aims. We report on the discovery of the transiting planet CoRoT-Exo-2b, with a period of 1.743 days, and characterize its main parameters. Methods. We filter the CoRoT raw light curve of cosmic impacts, orbital residuals, and low frequency signals from the star. The folded light curve of 78 transits is fitted to a model to obtain the main parameters. Radial velocity data obtained with the SOPHIE, CORALIE and HARPS spectrographs are combined to characterize the system. The 2.5 min binned phase-folded light curve is affected by the effect of sucessive occultations of stellar active regions by the planet, and the dispersion in the out of transit part reaches a level of 1.09\times10 super(-4) in flux units. Results. We derive a radius for the planet of 1.465 \pm 0.029 R_{\rm Jup} and a mass of 3.31 \pm 0.16 M_{\rm Jup}, corresponding to a density of 1.31 \pm 0.04 g/cm super(3). The large radius of CoRoT-Exo-2b cannot be explained by current models of evolution of irradiated planets.
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