We present a statistical analysis of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) based on 23 years of quasi-continuous observations with the LASCO coronagraph, thus covering two complete Solar Cycles (23 ...and 24). We make use of five catalogs, one manual (CDAW) and four automated (ARTEMIS, CACTus, SEEDS, and CORIMP), to characterize the temporal evolutions and distributions of their properties: occurrence and mass rates, waiting times, periodicities, angular width, latitude, speed, acceleration and kinetic energy. Our analysis points to inevitable discrepancies between catalogs due to the complex nature of CMEs and to the different techniques implemented to detect them, but also to large areas of convergence that are critically important to ascertain the reliability of the results. The temporal variations of these properties are compared to four indices/proxies of solar activity: the radio flux at 10.7 cm (F10.7), the international sunspot number (SSN), the sunspot area (SSA), and the total magnetic field (TMF), either globally or separately in the northern and southern hemispheres in the case of the last three. We investigate the association of CMEs with flares, erupting prominences, active regions and streamers. We find that the CME occurrence and mass rates globally track the indices/proxies of solar activity with no time lag, prominently the radio flux F10.7, but the linear relationships were different during the two solar cycles, implying that the CME rates were relatively larger during SC 24 than during SC 23. However, there exists a pronounced divergence of the CME rates in the northern hemisphere during SC 24 as these rates were substantially larger than predicted by the temporal variation of the sunspot number. The distribution of kinetic energy follows a log-normal law and that of angular width follows an exponential law implying that they are random and independent. The distribution of waiting time (WTD) has a long power-law tail extending from 3 to 100 hr with a power-law index which varies with the solar cycle, thus reflecting the temporal variability of the process of CME formation. There is very limited evidence for periodicities in the occurrence and mass rates of CMEs, a striking feature being the dichotomy between the two hemispheres. Rather weak correlations are present among the various CME parameters and particularly none between speed and acceleration. The association of CMEs with flares and erupting prominences involves only a few percents of the overall population of CMEs but the associated CMEs have distinctly larger mass, speed, kinetic energy and angular width. A more pronounced association is found with active regions but the overwhelming one is with streamers further confirmed by the similarity between the heliolatitudinal distribution of CMEs and that of the electron density reconstructed from time-dependent tomographic inversion. We find no evidence of bimodality in the distributions of physical parameters that would support the existence of two classes, particularly that based on speed and acceleration, the distributions thus favoring a continuum of properties. There exists an excess of narrows CMEs which however does not define a special class. These narrow CMEs are likely associated with the ubiquitous mini-filaments eruptions and with mini flux ropes originating from small magnetic bipoles, the disruption mechanisms being similar to those launching larger CMEs. This supports the concept that CMEs at large arise from closed-field coronal regions at both large and small scales.
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.
ABSTRACT The Rosetta probe, orbiting Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has been detecting individual dust particles of mass larger than 10−10 kg by means of the GIADA dust collector and ...the OSIRIS Wide Angle Camera and Narrow Angle Camera since 2014 August and will continue until 2016 September. Detections of single dust particles allow us to estimate the anisotropic dust flux from 67P, infer the dust loss rate and size distribution at the surface of the sunlit nucleus, and see whether the dust size distribution of 67P evolves in time. The velocity of the Rosetta orbiter, relative to 67P, is much lower than the dust velocity measured by GIADA, thus dust counts when GIADA is nadir-pointing will directly provide the dust flux. In OSIRIS observations, the dust flux is derived from the measurement of the dust space density close to the spacecraft. Under the assumption of radial expansion of the dust, observations in the nadir direction provide the distance of the particles by measuring their trail length, with a parallax baseline determined by the motion of the spacecraft. The dust size distribution at sizes >1 mm observed by OSIRIS is consistent with a differential power index of −4, which was derived from models of 67P's trail. At sizes <1 mm, the size distribution observed by GIADA shows a strong time evolution, with a differential power index drifting from −2 beyond 2 au to −3.7 at perihelion, in agreement with the evolution derived from coma and tail models based on ground-based data. The refractory-to-water mass ratio of the nucleus is close to six during the entire inbound orbit and at perihelion.
Context. The ESA Rosetta spacecraft, currently orbiting around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has already provided in situ measurements of the dust grain properties from several ...instruments,particularly OSIRIS and GIADA. We propose adding value to those measurements by combining them with ground-based observations of the dust tail to monitor the overall, time-dependent dust-production rate and size distribution. Aims. To constrain the dust grain properties, we take Rosetta OSIRIS and GIADA results into account, and combine OSIRIS data during the approach phase (from late April to early June 2014) with a large data set of ground-based images that were acquired with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) from February to November 2014. Methods. A Monte Carlo dust tail code, which has already been used to characterise the dust environments of several comets and active asteroids, has been applied to retrieve the dust parameters. Key properties of the grains (density, velocity, and size distribution) were obtained from Rosetta observations: these parameters were used as input of the code to considerably reduce the number of free parameters. In this way, the overall dust mass-loss rate and its dependence on the heliocentric distance could be obtained accurately. Results. The dust parameters derived from the inner coma measurements by OSIRIS and GIADA and from distant imaging using VLT data are consistent, except for the power index of the size-distribution function, which is α = −3, instead of α = −2, for grains smaller than 1 mm. This is possibly linked to the presence of fluffy aggregates in the coma. The onset of cometary activity occurs at approximately 4.3 AU, with a dust production rate of 0.5 kg/s, increasing up to 15 kg/s at 2.9 AU. This implies a dust-to-gas mass ratio varying between 3.8 and 6.5 for the best-fit model when combined with water-production rates from the MIRO experiment.
Aims. The Rosetta space probe accompanied comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for more than two years, obtaining an unprecedented amount of unique data of the comet nucleus and inner coma. This has ...enabled us to study its activity almost continuously from 4 au inbound to 3.6 au outbound, including the perihelion passage at 1.24 au. This work focuses identifying the source regions of faint jets and outbursts and on studying the spectrophotometric properties of some outbursts. We use observations acquired with the OSIRIS/NAC camera during July–October 2015, that is, close to perihelion. Methods. We analyzed more than 2000 images from NAC color sequences acquired with 7–11 filters covering the 250–1000 nm wavelength range. The OSIRIS images were processed with the OSIRIS standard pipeline up to level 3, that is, converted in radiance factor, then corrected for the illumination conditions. For each color sequence, color cubes were produced by stacking registered and illumination-corrected images. Results. More than 200 jets of different intensities were identified directly on the nucleus. Some of the more intense outbursts appear spectrally bluer than the comet dark terrain in the visible-to-near-infrared region. We attribute this spectral behavior to icy grains mixed with the ejected dust. Some of the jets have an extremely short lifetime. They appear on the cometary surface during the color sequence observations, and vanish in less than some few minutes after reaching their peak. We also report a resolved dust plume observed in May 2016 at a resolution of 55 cm pixel−1, which allowed us to estimate an optical depth of ~0.65 and an ejected mass of ~2200 kg, assuming a grain bulk density of ~800 kg m−3. We present the results on the location, duration, and colors of active sources on the nucleus of 67P from the medium-resolution (i.e., 6–10 m pixel−1) images acquired close to perihelion passage. The observed jets are mainly located close to boundaries between different morphological regions. Some of these active areas were observed and investigated at higher resolution (up to a few decimeter per pixel) during the last months of operations of the Rosetta mission. Conclusions. These observations allow us to investigate the link between morphology, composition, and activity of cometary nuclei. Jets depart not only from cliffs, but also from smooth and dust-covered areas, from fractures, pits, or cavities that cast shadows and favor the recondensation of volatiles. This study shows that faint jets or outbursts continuously contribute to the cometary activity close to perihelion passage, and that these events are triggered byillumination conditions. Faint jets or outbursts are not associated with a particular terrain type or morphology.
Context. Dust jets (i.e., fuzzy collimated streams of cometary material arising from the nucleus) have been observed in situ on all comets since the Giotto mission flew by comet 1P/Halley in 1986, ...and yet their formation mechanism remains unknown. Several solutions have been proposed involving either specific properties of the active areas or the local topography to create and focus the gas and dust flows. While the nucleus morphology seems to be responsible for the larger features, high resolution imagery has shown that broad streams are composed of many smaller jets (a few meters wide) that connect directly to the nucleus surface. Aims. We monitored these jets at high resolution and over several months to understand what the physical processes are that drive their formation and how this affects the surface. Methods. Using many images of the same areas with different viewing angles, we performed a 3-dimensional reconstruction of collimated jets and linked them precisely to their sources on the nucleus. Results. We show here observational evidence that the northern hemisphere jets of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko arise from areas with sharp topographic changes and describe the physical processes involved. We propose a model in which active cliffs are the main source of jet-like features and therefore of the regions eroding the fastest on comets. We suggest that this is a common mechanism taking place on all comets.
Aims
. We present the design and pre-launch performance of the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) which is an instrument prepared for inclusion in the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission, ...currently scheduled for launch in 2020.
Methods
. The goal of this paper is to provide details of the SoloHI instrument concept, design, and pre-flight performance to give the potential user of the data a better understanding of how the observations are collected and the sources that contribute to the signal.
Results
. The paper discusses the science objectives, including the SoloHI-specific aspects, before presenting the design concepts, which include the optics, mechanical, thermal, electrical, and ground processing. Finally, a list of planned data products is also presented.
Conclusions
. The performance measurements of the various instrument parameters meet or exceed the requirements derived from the mission science objectives. SoloHI is poised to take its place as a vital contributor to the science success of the Solar Orbiter mission.
•We show results from a Spitzer mid-IR survey of Jupiter-family (JF) comets.•We present 89 new radii and 57 new beaming parameters for the nuclei.•Mean beaming parameter is 1.03±0.11, so ensemble ...thermal inertia is low.•Our independent cumulative size distribution is similar to earlier work.•There are likely low-perihelion, large JF nuclei still undiscovered.
We present results from SEPPCoN, an on-going Survey of the Ensemble Physical Properties of Cometary Nuclei. In this report we discuss mid-infrared measurements of the thermal emission from 89 nuclei of Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). All data were obtained in 2006 and 2007 using imaging capabilities of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The comets were typically 4–5AU from the Sun when observed and most showed only a point-source with little or no extended emission from dust. For those comets showing dust, we used image processing to photometrically extract the nuclei. For all 89 comets, we present new effective radii, and for 57 comets we present beaming parameters. Thus our survey provides the largest compilation of radiometrically-derived physical properties of nuclei to date. We have six main conclusions: (a) The average beaming parameter of the JFC population is 1.03±0.11, consistent with unity; coupled with the large distance of the nuclei from the Sun, this indicates that most nuclei have Tempel 1-like thermal inertia. Only two of the 57 nuclei had outlying values (in a statistical sense) of infrared beaming. (b) The known JFC population is not complete even at 3km radius, and even for comets that approach to ∼2AU from the Sun and so ought to be more discoverable. Several recently-discovered comets in our survey have small perihelia and large (above ∼2km) radii. (c) With our radii, we derive an independent estimate of the JFC nuclear cumulative size distribution (CSD), and we find that it has a power-law slope of around −1.9, with the exact value depending on the bounds in radius. (d) This power-law is close to that derived by others from visible-wavelength observations that assume a fixed geometric albedo, suggesting that there is no strong dependence of geometric albedo with radius. (e) The observed CSD shows a hint of structure with an excess of comets with radii 3–6km. (f) Our CSD is consistent with the idea that the intrinsic size distribution of the JFC population is not a simple power-law and lacks many sub-kilometer objects.
The Rosetta spacecraft has investigated comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from large heliocentric distances to its perihelion passage and beyond. We trace the seasonal and diurnal evolution of the ...colors of the 67P nucleus, finding changes driven by sublimation and recondensation of water ice. The whole nucleus became relatively bluer near perihelion, as increasing activity removed the surface dust, implying that water ice is widespread underneath the surface. We identified large (1500 square meters) ice-rich patches appearing and then vanishing in about 10 days, indicating small-scale heterogeneities on the nucleus. Thin frosts sublimating in a few minutes are observed close to receding shadows, and rapid variations in color are seen on extended areas close to the terminator. These cyclic processes are widespread and lead to continuously, slightly varying surface properties.
PDF
