Search

The determination of the speed of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) is usually done by tracking brighter features (such as the CME front and core) in visible light coronagraphic images and by deriving unidimensional profiles of the CME speed as a function of altitude or time. Nevertheless, CMEs are usually characterized by the presence of significant density inhomogeneities propagating outward with different radial and latitudinal projected speeds, resulting in a complex evolution eventually forming the Interplanetary CME. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time how coronagraphic image sequences can be analyzed with cross-correlation technique to derive 2D maps of the almost instantaneous plasma speed distribution within the body of CMEs. The technique is first tested with the analysis of synthetic data, and then applied to real observations. Results from this work allow to characterize the distribution and time evolution of kinetic energy inside CMEs, as well as the mechanical energy (combined with the kinetic and potential energy) partition between the core and front of the CME. In the future, CMEs will be observed by two channels (VL and UV Ly-$\alpha$) coronagraphs, such as Metis on-board ESA Solar Orbiter mission as well as Ly-$\alpha$ Solar Telescope (LST) on-board Chinese Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) mission. Our results will help the analysis of these future observations, helping in particular to take into account the 2D distribution of Ly-$\alpha$ Doppler dimming effect., Comment: Accepted

This paper presents a review of the 2018 WIDER Challenge on Face and Pedestrian. The challenge focuses on the problem of precise localization of human faces and bodies, and accurate association of identities. It comprises of three tracks: (i) WIDER Face which aims at soliciting new approaches to advance the state-of-the-art in face detection, (ii) WIDER Pedestrian which aims to find effective and efficient approaches to address the problem of pedestrian detection in unconstrained environments, and (iii) WIDER Person Search which presents an exciting challenge of searching persons across 192 movies. In total, 73 teams made valid submissions to the challenge tracks. We summarize the winning solutions for all three tracks. and present discussions on open problems and potential research directions in these topics., Comment: Report of ECCV 2018 workshop: WIDER Face and Pedestrian Challenge

The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) mission aims to explore two most spectacular eruptions in the Sun: solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and their magnetism. For the studies of CMEs, the payload Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope (LST) has been proposed. It includes a traditional white-light coronagraph and a Lyman-alpha coronagraph which opens a new window to CME observations. Polarization measurements taken by white-light coronagraphs are crucial to derive fundamental physical parameters of CMEs. To make such measurements, there are two options of Stokes polarimeter which have been used by existing white-light coronagraphs for space missions. One uses a single or triple linear polarizers, the other involves both a half-wave plate and a linear polarizer. We find that the former option subjects to less uncertainty in the derived Stokes vector propagated from detector noise. The latter option involves two plates which are prone to internal reflections and may have a reduced transmission factor. Therefore, the former option is adopted as our Stokes polarimeter scheme for LST. Based on the parameters of the intended linear polarizer(s) colorPol provided by CODIXX and the half-wave plate 2-APW-L2-012C by Altechna, it is further shown that the imperfect maximum transmittance of the polarizer significantly increases the variance amplification of Stokes vector by at least about 50% when compared with the ideal case. The relative errors of Stokes vector caused by the imperfection of colorPol polarizer and the uncertainty due to the polarizer assembling in the telescope are estimated to be about 5%. Among the considered parameters, we find that the dominant error comes from the uncertainty in the maximum transmittance of the polarizer., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure, Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, accepted

Large-scale solar eruptions have been extensively explored over many years. However, the properties of small-scale events with associated shocks have been rarely investigated. We present the analyses of a small-scale short-duration event originating from a small region. The impulsive phase of the M1.9-class flare lasted only for four minutes. The kinematic evolution of the CME hot channel reveals some exceptional characteristics including a very short duration of the main acceleration phase ($<$ 2 minutes), a rather high maximal acceleration rate ($\sim$50 km s$^{-2}$) and peak velocity ($\sim$1800 km s$^{-1}$). The fast and impulsive kinematics subsequently results in a piston-driven shock related to a metric type II radio burst with a high starting frequency of $\sim$320 MHz of the fundamental band. The type II source is formed at a low height of below $1.1~\mathrm{R_{\odot}}$ less than $\sim2$ minutes after the onset of the main acceleration phase. Through the band split of the type II burst, the shock compression ratio decreases from 2.2 to 1.3, and the magnetic field strength of the shock upstream region decreases from 13 to 0.5 Gauss at heights of 1.1 to 2.3 $~\mathrm{R_{\odot}}$. We find that the CME ($\sim4\times10^{30}\,\mathrm{erg}$) and flare ($\sim1.6\times10^{30}\,\mathrm{erg}$) consume similar amount of magnetic energy. The same conclusion for large-scale eruptions implies that small- and large-scale events possibly share the similar relationship between CMEs and flares. The kinematic particularities of this event are possibly related to the small footpoint-separation distance of the associated magnetic flux rope, as predicted by the Erupting Flux Rope model., Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures