Fine Structures in the White‐Light Solar Corona at the 2006 Eclipse

Abstract

Observations of the total solar eclipse of 2006 March 29, as it crossed Africa from southwest to northeast into a Greek island and beyond, allowed correlations with near-simultaneous coronal observations from several spacecraft, including SOHO and TRACE. New methods of compositing images allow the recovery of higher resolution (1 00 Y2 00 ) on coronal features than had normally been available in the past, reaching substantially higher resolutions than are currently available from space. We discuss a variety of the new methods and observations, and use them to provide the most detailed portrait possible of the Sun, at least on 2006 March 29.

Comparing eclipse observations of the 2008 August 1 solar corona with an MHD model prediction

“…Largescale structures related to helmet streamers can be traced up to distances of 20 solar radii. Associated with the coronal holes is a strange "curtain-like" structure, which we observed previously in the 2006 eclipse corona (Pasachoff et al 2007). …”

“…Figure 1 compares the white-light corona, using a logarithmic brightness scale, as composed from 25 individual images of varying exposure (left), with a digitally processed version in order to enhance low-contrast structures invisible to the human eye (right). A novel method Druckmüller 2009) was used to process the data obtained from these coordinated observations, giving us images of the white-light corona with high-quality resolution for groundbased observations (see also Pasachoff et al 2007, for the 2006 eclipse). Although the overall resolution is a few seconds of arc, the finest visible features (e.g., polar rays) have a size of around 1 arcsec (700 km), thanks to the APO 105 mm lens, whose focal length was increased up to 1250 mm.…”

Structure and Dynamics of the 2012 November 13/14 Eclipse White-Light Corona

“…The behavior of large-scale solar coronal structures has been discussed, for example, by Rušin & Rybanský (1984), Koutchmy (1988), Zirker et al (1992), Pasachoff et al (2006Pasachoff et al ( , 2007Pasachoff et al ( , 2008Pasachoff et al ( , 2009Pasachoff et al ( , 2011aPasachoff et al ( , 2011b, Golub & Pasachoff (2010, Habbal et al (2013), and Druckmüller et al (2014). As the observing sites (Queensland and north of New Zealand) of the images in our comparison were 36 minutes apart in umbral travel time, comparing the corresponding data also enables us to discern interesting changes in the large-scale structure of the WLC on a temporal scale of half an hour.…”

Untitled

“…Extremely high spatial resolution observations of the 2006 eclipse have also been reported by Pasachoff et al [2007]. There is growing evidence in the scientifi c community that the magnetic fi elds shaping the Sun's corona and extending outward to fi ll the heliosphere must be better represented than they are by present models, and therefore high spatial resolution observations are necessary.…”