Aims. Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission and is capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona in a square field of view (FoV) of ±2.9 • in width, with an inner circular FoV at 1.6 • , thus spanning the solar atmosphere from 1.7 R to about 9 R , owing to the eccentricity of the spacecraft orbit. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close (0.28 AU, at the closest perihelion) vantage point, achieving increasing out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, allow longer-term studies of the off-limb coronal features, thus finally disentangling their intrinsic evolution from effects due to solar rotation. Methods. Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H i Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm. The visible light channel also includes a broadband polarimeter able to observe the linearly polarised component of the K corona. The coronal images in both the UV H i Lyman-α and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 second can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light. Results. The Metis measurements, obtained from different latitudes, will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes the acceleration process and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) take place. The near-Sun multi-wavelength coronal imaging performed with Metis, combined with the unique opportunities offered by the Solar Orbiter mission, can effectively address crucial issues of solar physics such as: the origin and heating/acceleration of the fast and slow solar wind streams; the origin, acceleration, and transport of the solar energetic particles; and the transient ejection of coronal mass and its evolution in the inner heliosphere, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere and of the processes generating and driving the solar wind and coronal mass ejections. Conclusions. This paper presents the scientific objectives and requirements, the overall optical design of the Metis instrument, t...

We investigated the capability of mapping the solar wind outflow velocity of neutral hydrogen atoms by using synergistic visible-light and ultraviolet observations. We used polarised brightness images acquired by the LASCO/SOHO and Mk3/MLSO coronagraphs, and synoptic Lyα line observations of the UVCS/SOHO spectrometer to obtain daily maps of solar wind H I outflow velocity between 1.5 and 4.0 R⊙ on the SOHO plane of the sky during a complete solar rotation (from 1997 June 1 to 1997 June 28). The 28-days data sequence allows us to construct coronal off-limb Carrington maps of the resulting velocities at different heliocentric distances to investigate the space and time evolution of the outflowing solar plasma. In addition, we performed a parameter space exploration in order to study the dependence of the derived outflow velocities on the physical quantities characterising the Lyα emitting process in the corona. Our results are important in anticipation of the future science with the Metis instrument, selected to be part of the Solar Orbiter scientific payload. It was conceived to carry out near-sun coronagraphy, performing for the first time simultaneous imaging in polarised visible-light and ultraviolet H I Lyα line, so providing an unprecedented view of the solar wind acceleration region in the inner corona.

Context. Coronal streamers appear to be strictly associated with the generation of the slow solar wind, even if a firm identification of the sources of the particle flux within these structures is still an unresolved issue. Aims. The purpose of this work is to contribute to a better knowledge of the physical characteristics of streamers and of their surroundings in a wide range of heliocentric distances and at both high radial and latitudinal resolutions. Methods. The analysis is based on spectral observations of a narrow, mid-latitude streamer performed with UVCS/SOHO during one week in May 2004: H i Lyα and O vi resonance doublet line intensities and profiles were obtained at different heliocentric distances and latitudes. In addition, white-light polarized brightness images were taken in the same days of observation, through the LASCO/SOHO C2 coronagraph.Results. The radial variations in electron density and temperature, H i and O vi kinetic temperatures, and outflow velocities were derived from the observed line intensities, profiles, and O vi line intensity ratios between 1.6 and 5.0 R , in two regions, 2-3 arcmin wide, located along the boundaries and in a narrow strip (5-10 arcmin) outside the streamer structure. Significantly high kinetic temperatures and outflow velocities were found in the out-of-streamer region above 3.0 R for the O vi ions and, for the first time, H i atoms, compared to those obtained along the streamer boundaries. Moreover, the O vi kinetic temperatures and velocities turn out much higher than the H i ones at any heliocentric distance in all the observed regions. A higher anisotropy is also noticed for the O vi kinetic temperature in the region flanking the streamer. Conclusions. The slow coronal wind is found to flow with significantly different speeds and kinetic temperatures along the boundaries of the streamer and in the out-of-streamer regions at all heights, above 3.0-3.5 R . This fact, consistent with previous studies, indicates that two components of slow wind probably form in the observed regions: one originates just above the streamer cusp and flows with velocities a little higher than 100 km s −1 , while the other flows along the open magnetic field lines flanking the streamer with velocities slightly lower than the slow wind asymptotic heliospheric value of ∼400 km s −1 , around 5.0 R .

We report here on the determination of plasma physical parameters across a shock driven by a Coronal Mass Ejection using White Light (WL) coronagraphic images and Radio Dynamic Spectra (RDS). The event analyzed here is the spectacular eruption that occurred on June 7th 2011, a fast CME followed by the ejection of columns of chromospheric plasma, part of them falling back to the solar surface, associated with a M2.5 flare and a type-II radio burst. Images acquired by the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs (C2 and C3) were employed to track the CME-driven shock in the corona between 2-12 R in an angular interval of about 110 • . In these intervals we derived 2-Dimensional (2D) maps of electron density, shock velocity and shock compression ratio, and we measured the shock inclination angle with respect to the radial direction. Under plausible assumptions, these quantities were used to infer 2D maps of shock Mach number M A and strength of coronal magnetic fields at the shock's heights. We found that in the early phases (2-4 R ) the whole shock surface is super-Alfvénic, while later on (i.e. higher up) it becomes super-Alfvenic only at the nose. This is in agreement with the location for the source of the observed type-II burst, as inferred from RDS combined with the shock kinematic and coronal densities derived from WL. For the first time, a coronal shock is used to derive a 2D map of the coronal magnetic field strength over a 10 R altitude and ∼ 110 • latitude intervals.

In this work UV and white light (WL) coronagraphic data are combined to derive the full set of plasma physical parameters along the front of a shock driven by a Coronal Mass Ejection. Pre-shock plasma density, shock compression ratio, speed and inclination angle are estimated from WL data, while pre-shock plasma temperature and outflow velocity are derived from UV data. The Rankine-Hugoniot (RH) equations for the general case of an oblique shock are then applied at three points along the front located between 2.2 − 2.6 R ⊙ at the shock nose and at the two flanks. Stronger field deflection (by ∼ 46 • ), plasma compression (factor ∼ 2.7) and heating (factor ∼ 12) occur at the nose, while heating at the flanks is more moderate (factor 1.5 − 3.0). Starting from a pre-shock corona where protons and electrons have about the same temperature (T p ∼ T e ∼ 1.5 · 10 6 K), temperature increases derived with RH equations could better represent the protons heating (by dissipation across the shock), while the temperature increase implied by adiabatic compression (factor ∼ 2 at the nose, ∼ 1.2 − 1.5 at the flanks) could be more representative of electrons heating: the transit of the shock causes a decoupling between electron and proton temperatures. Derived magnetic field vector rotations imply a draping of field lines around the expanding flux rope. The shock turns out to be super-critical (sub-critical) at the nose (at the flanks), where derived post-shock plasma parameters can be very well approximated with those derived by assuming a parallel (perpendicular) shock.

We study the signatures of coronal heating on the differential emission measure (DEM) by means of hydrodynamic simulations capable of resolving the chromospheric-corona transition region sections of multi-stranded coronal loops and following their evolution. We consider heating either uniformly distributed along the loop or localized close to the chromospheric footpoints, in both steady and impulsive regimes. Our simulations show that condensation at the top of the loop forms when the impulsive heating, with a pulse cadence lower than the plasma cooling time, is localized at the loop footpoints, and the pulse energy is below a threshold above which the heating balances the radiative losses, thus preventing the catastrophic cooling which triggers the condensation. A condensation does not produce observable signatures in the DEM because it does not redistribute the plasma over a sufficiently large temperature range. On the other hand, the DEM coronal peak is found sensitive to the pulse cadence time when this is longer or comparable to the plasma cooling time. In this case, the heating pulses produce large oscillations in temperature in the bulk of the coronal plasma, which effectively smears out the coronal DEM structure. The pronounced DEM peak observed in active regions would indicate a predominance of conditions in which the cadence time is shorter or of the order of the plasma cooling time, whilst the structure of the quiet-Sun DEM suggests a cadence time longer than the plasma cooling time. Our simulations give an explanation of the warm overdense and hot underdense loops observed by TRACE, SOHO, and Yohkoh. However, they are unable to reproduce both the transition region and the coronal DEM structure with a unique set of parameters, which outlines the need for a more realistic description of the transition region.

Context. The paper deals with the physics of erupting prominences in the core of coronal mass ejections (CME). Aims. We determine the physical parameters of an erupting prominence embedded in the core of a CME using SOHO/UVCS hydrogen Lα and Lβ lines and SOHO/LASCO visible light observations. In particular we analyze the CME event observed on August 2, 2000. We develop the non-LTE (NLTE; i.e. considering departures from the local thermodynamic equilibrium -LTE) spectral diagnostics based on Lα and visible light observations. Methods. Our method is based on 1D NLTE modeling of eruptive prominences and takes into account the effect of large flow velocities, which reach up to 300 km s −1 for the studied event (the so-called Doppler dimming). The NLTE radiative-transfer method can be used for both optically thin and thick prominence structures. We combine spectroscopic UVCS observations of an erupting prominence in the core of a CME with visible light images from LASCO-C2 in order to derive the geometrical parameters like projected thickness and velocity, together with the effective temperature and column density of electrons. These are then used to constrain our NLTE radiative transfer modeling which provides the kinetic temperature, microturbulent velocity, gas pressure, ionization degree, the line opacities, and the prominence effective thickness (geometrical filling factor). Results. Analysis was made for 69 observational points (spatial pixels) inside the whole erupting prominence. Roughly one-half of them show a non-negligible Lα optical thickness for flow velocity 300 km s −1 and about one-third for flow velocity 150 km s −1 . All pixels with Lα τ 0 ≤ 0.3 have been considered for further analysis, which is presented in the form of statistical distributions (histograms) of various physical quantities such as the kinetic temperature, gas pressure, and electron density for two representative flow velocities (150 and 300 km s −1 ) and non-zero microturbulence. For two pixels co-temporal LASCO visible-light data are also available, which further constrains the diagnostics of the electron density and effective thickness. Detailed NLTE modeling is presented for various sets of input parameters. Conclusions. The studied CME event shows that the erupting prominence expands to large volumes, meaning that it is a low-pressure structure with low electron densities and high temperatures. This analysis provides a basis for future diagnostics using the METIS coronagraph on board the Solar Orbiter mission.

We derived maps of the solar wind outflow velocity of coronal neutral hydrogen atoms at solar minimum in the altitude range 1.5–4.0 R⊙. We applied the Doppler dimming technique to coronagraphic observations in the UV H I Lyα line at 121.6 nm. The technique exploits the intensity reduction in the coronal line with increasing velocities of the outflowing plasma to determine the solar wind velocity by iterative modelling. The Lyα line intensity is sensitive to the wind outflow velocity and also depends on the physical properties of coronal particles and underlying chromospheric emission. Measurements of irradiance by the chromospheric Lyα radiation in the corona are required for a rigorous application of the Doppler dimming technique, but they are not provided by past and current instrumentations. A correlation function between the H I 121.6 nm and He II 30.4 nm line intensities was used to construct Carrington rotation maps of the non-uniform solar chromospheric Lyα radiation and thus to compute the Lyα line irradiance throughout the outer corona. Approximations concerning the temperature of the scattering H I atoms and exciting solar disc radiation were also adopted to significantly reduce the computational time and obtain a faster procedure for a quick-look data analysis of future coronagraphic observations. The effect of the chromospheric Lyα brightness distribution on the resulting H I outflow velocities was quantified. In particular, we found that the usual uniform-disc approximation systematically leads to an overestimated velocity in the polar and mid-latitude coronal regions up to a maximum of about 50−60 km s−1 closer to the Sun. This difference decreases at higher altitudes, where an increasingly larger chromospheric portion, including both brighter and darker disc features, contributes to illuminate the solar corona, and the non-uniform radiation condition progressively approaches the uniform-disc approximation.