1. Study of Plasma Heating Processes in a Coronal Mass Ejection–driven Shock Sheath Region Observed with the Metis Coronagraph
- Author
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Federica Frassati, Alessandro Bemporad, Salvatore Mancuso, Silvio Giordano, Vincenzo Andretta, Aleksandr Burtovoi, Vania Da Deppo, Yara De Leo, Silvano Fineschi, Catia Grimani, Salvo Guglielmino, Petr Heinzel, Giovanna Jerse, Federico Landini, Alessandro Liberatore, Giampiero Naletto, Gianalfredo Nicolini, Maurizio Pancrazzi, Paolo Romano, Marco Romoli, Giuliana Russano, Clementina Sasso, Daniele Spadaro, Marco Stangalini, Roberto Susino, Luca Teriaca, Michela Uslenghi, and Luca Zangrilli
- Subjects
Active Sun ,Solar coronal mass ejection shocks ,Solar wind ,Solar physics ,Radio bursts ,Interplanetary shocks ,Astrophysics ,QB460-466 - Abstract
On 2021 September 28, a C1.6 class flare occurred in active region NOAA 12871, located approximately at 27°S and 51°W on the solar disk with respect to Earth’s point of view. This event was followed by a partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) that caused the deflection of preexisting coronal streamer structures, as observed in visible-light coronagraphic images. An associated type II radio burst was also detected by both space- and ground-based instruments, indicating the presence of a coronal shock propagating into interplanetary space. By using H i Ly α (121.6 nm) observations from the Metis coronagraph on board the Solar Orbiter mission, we demonstrate for the first time the capability of UV imaging to provide, via a Doppler dimming technique, an upper limit estimate of the evolution of the 2D proton kinetic temperature in the CME-driven shock sheath as it passes through the field of view of the instrument. Our results suggest that over the 22 minutes of observations, the shock propagated with a speed decreasing from about 740 ± 110 km s ^−1 to 400 ± 60 km s ^−1 . At the same time, the postshock proton temperatures peaked at latitudes around the shock nose and decreased with time from about 6.8 ± 1.01 MK to 3.1 ± 0.47 MK. The application of the Rankine–Hugoniot jump conditions demonstrates that these temperatures are higher by a factor of about 2–5 than those expected from simple adiabatic compression, implying that significant shock heating is still going on at these distances.
- Published
- 2024
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