March 10, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

March 10, 2010, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Physical conditions in a CME from Hinode, STEREO, and SOHO observations

Enrico Landi (Naval Research Laboratory)

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 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 CME a observed during the Whole Heliospheric Interval campaign. We 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. We then use Hinode/EIS, SOHO/UVCS, and Hinode/XRT high resolution spectra and images to measure the physical properties and the thermal structure of the CME ejecta as a function of time at 1.1 and 1.9 solar radii. Plasma properties, dynamical status, thermal structure and brightness distributions are then used to determine the energetics of the CME event and are compared to theoretical predictions of CME plasma heating and acceleration.