A propagation tool to connect remote-sensing observations with in-situ measurements of heliospheric structures

Abstract

The remoteness of the Sun and the harsh conditions prevailing in the solar corona have so far limited the observational data used in the study of solar physics to remote-sensing observations taken either from the ground or from space. In contrast, the `solar wind laboratory' is directly measured in situ by a fleet of spacecraft measuring the properties of the plasma and magnetic fields at specific points in space. Since 2007, the solar-terrestrial relations observatory (STEREO) has been providing images of the solar wind that flows between the solar corona and spacecraft making in-situ measurements. This has allowed scientists to directly connect processes imaged near the Sun with the subsequent effects measured in the solar wind. This new capability prompted the development of a series of tools and techniques to track heliospheric structures through space. This article presents one of these tools, a web-based interface called the 'Propagation Tool' that offers an integrated research environment to study the evolution of coronal and solar wind structures, such as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) and Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). These structures can be propagated from the Sun outwards to or alternatively inwards from planets and spacecraft situated in the inner and outer heliosphere. In this paper, we present the global architecture of the tool, discuss some of the assumptions made to simulate the evolution of the structures and show how the tool connects to different databases.

arXiv comment22 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Planetary and Space Science

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Relating streamer flows to density and magnetic structures at the Parker Solar Probe
• In situ measurements of the variable slow solar wind near sector boundaries
• VESPA: a community-driven Virtual Observatory in Planetary Science
• Detailed imaging of coronal rays with the Parker Solar Probe
• Connecting Coronal Mass Ejections to their Solar Active Region Sources: Combining Results from the HELCATS and FLARECAST Projects
• On the Radial and Longitudinal Variation of a Magnetic Cloud: ACE, Wind, ARTEMIS and Juno Observations
• Multi-Spacecraft Observations of the Evolution of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections Between 0.3 and 2.2 AU: Conjunctions with the Juno Spacecraft
• Effect of a magnetosphere compression on Jovian radio emissions: in situ case study using Juno data
• Estimating uncertainties in the back-mapping of the fast solar wind
• Tracking solar wind flows from rapidly varying viewpoints by the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe