A Search for Early Optical Emission at Gamma‐Ray Burst Locations by the<i>Solar Mass Ejection Imager</i>(<i>SMEI</i>)

Buffington, A.; Band, D. L.; Jackson, B. V.; Hick, P. P.; Smith, Aaron

doi:10.1086/498407

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…8 in Eyles et al (2003)), but has about a 0.5°diameter extent. The short-term differential photometric precision is 0.1% over most of the sky, but degrades near bright stars or the Moon, during periods of bright aurora (Mizuno et al, 2005) or when auroral electrons or South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) protons impact the CCD (Buffington et al, 2006a). The SMEI data are originally recorded in the form of per-pixel electron counts from the CCD detector that are labeled analog-todigital units (ADUs) in the various SMEI publications.…”

Section: Smei Observations and Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

Buffington

Bisi

Clover

et al. 2009

Icarus

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Section: Smei Observations and Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

Buffington

Bisi

Clover

et al. 2009

Icarus

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“…The image pixels are 0.5° bins with a resolution of ∼1°. At this level of processing each image bin is the average of approximately 10 CCD frames providing an RMS sensitivity of ∼0.1 ADU [ Buffington et al , 2006].…”

Section: Smei Instrument and Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME

et al. 2008

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The Solar Mass Ejection Imager observed an extremely faint interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) as it passed Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) on 5 May 2004, apparently causing a disruption of its plasma tail. This is the first time that an ICME has been directly observed interacting with a comet. SMEI's nearly all‐sky coverage and image cadence afforded unprecedented coverage of this rarely observed event. The onset first appeared as a “kink” moving antisunward that eventually developed knots within the disturbed tail. These knots appeared to be swept up in the solar wind flow. We present the SMEI observations as well as identify a likely SOHO/LASCO progenitor of the CME. SMEI observed two other comets (C/2002 T7 [LINEAR] and C/2004 F4 [Bradfield]) and at least five similar events during a 35‐d period encompassing this observation. Although these had similar morphologies to the 5 May NEAT event, SMEI did not observe any ICMEs in these cases. Three of these were observed close to the heliospheric current sheet indicating that a magnetic boundary crossing may have contributed to the disruptions. However, there are no discernable causes in the SMEI observations for the remaining two events.

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“…SMEI was capable of detecting stars (at a 3σ threshold within a square-degree bin) down to 10th magnitude in a single sky map (Buffington et al 2006a). The resulting numerous stars therefore dominated the FOV of each camera.…”

Section: Astronomical Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also Spreckley and Stevens (2008) studied Polaris and provided valuable light curves for further stellar work, and Tarrant et al (2008aTarrant et al ( , 2008bTarrant et al ( , 2008c reported on oscillations in β Ursae Minoris and γ Doradus, and asteroseismology of red giant stars, respectively. Finally, SMEI searched for corresponding optical signatures for gamma-ray bursts (Buffington et al 2006a). However, there were no detections at the sensitivity limit of SMEI.…”

Section: Variable Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager and Its Heliospheric Imaging Legacy

et al. 2013

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The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) was the first of a new class of heliospheric and astronomical white-light imager. A heliospheric imager operates in a fashion similar to coronagraphs, in that it observes solar photospheric white light that has been Thomson scattered by free electrons in the solar wind plasma. coronagraphs, this imager differs in that it observes at much larger angles from the Sun. This in turn requires a much higher sensitivity and wider dynamic range for the measured intensity. SMEI was launched on the Coriolis spacecraft in January 2003 and was deactivated in September 2011, thus operating almost continuously for nearly nine years. Its primary objective was the observation of interplanetary transients, typically coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and tracking them continuously throughout the inner heliosphere. Towards this goal it was immediately effective, observing and tracking several CMEs in the first month of mission operations, with some 400 detections to follow. Along with this primary science objective, SMEI also contributed to many and varied scientific fields, including studies of corotating interaction regions (CIRs), the high-altitude aurora, zodiacal light, Gegenschein, comet tail disconnections and motions, and variable stars. It was also able to detect and track Earth-orbiting satellites and space debris. Along with its scientific advancements, SMEI also demonstrated a significantly improved accuracy of space weather prediction, thereby establishing the feasibility and usefulness of operational heliospheric imagers. In this paper we review the scientific and operational achievements of SMEI, discuss lessons learned, and present our view of potential next steps in future heliospheric imaging.

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A Search for Early Optical Emission at Gamma‐Ray Burst Locations by theSolar Mass Ejection Imager(SMEI)

Cited by 22 publications

References 21 publications

Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)

Observations of a comet tail disruption induced by the passage of a CME

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager and Its Heliospheric Imaging Legacy

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