MichSpace

Enrico Landi
Astrophysicist, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
Thursday, March 18, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm, 2246 Space Research Building

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are among the most dramatic and violent dynamic events occurring in the solar atmosphere, and have significant impact on the near-Earth environment, human activities and commercial and military communications. So far, the physical processes responsible for their release and acceleration have not been completely understood, in part because of the lack of direct measurements of the CME plasma physical parameters and evolution during the CME onset. In my talk I will describe the analysis of multiwavelength observations from Hinode, SOHO and STEREO of the very early phases of a CME observed during the Whole Heliospheric Interval campaign. I first use SECCHI/EUVI, SECCHI/COR1, SOHO/EIT and SOHO/LASCO images to reconstruct the 3D trajectory of the CME, and to measure its velocity and acceleration up to 20 solar radii. I then use Hinode/EIS and Hinode/XRT high resolution EUV spectra and X-ray images to measure the physical properties and the thermal structure of the core of the CME ejecta as a function of time at 1.1 solar radii. The physical properties of the active region location where the CME erupted are also monitored with time before, during and after the event.