The Heliospheric Imagers Onboard the STEREO Mission

Mounted on the sides of two widely separated spacecraft, the two Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments onboard NASA’s STEREO mission view, for the first time, the space between the Sun and Earth. These instruments are wide-angle visible-light imagers that incorporate sufficient baffling to eliminate scattered light to the extent that the passage of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) through the heliosphere can be detected. Each HI instrument comprises two cameras, HI-1 and HI-2, which have 20° and 70° fields of view and are off-pointed from the Sun direction by 14.0° and 53.7°, respectively, with their optical axes aligned in the ecliptic plane. This arrangement provides coverage over solar elongation angles from 4.0° to 88.7° at the viewpoints of the two spacecraft, thereby allowing the observation of Earth-directed CMEs along the Sun?–?Earth line to the vicinity of the Earth and beyond. Given the two separated platforms, this also presents the first opportunity to view the structure and evolution of CMEs in three dimensions. The STEREO spacecraft were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in late October 2006, and the HI instruments have been performing scientific observations since early 2007. The design, development, manufacture, and calibration of these unique instruments are reviewed in this paper. Mission operations, including the initial commissioning phase and the science operations phase, are described. Data processing and analysis procedures are briefly discussed, and ground-test results and in-orbit observations are used to demonstrate that the performance of the instruments meets the original scientific requirements.     

Calibrating the Pointing and Optical Parameters of the STEREO Heliospheric Imagers

The Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments on the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) observe solar plasma as it streams out from the Sun and into the heliosphere. The telescopes point off-limb (from about 4° to 90° elongation) and so the Sun is not in the field of view. Hence, the Sun cannot be used to confirm the instrument pointing. Until now, the pointing of the instruments have been calculated using the nominal preflight instrument offsets from the STEREO spacecraft together with the spacecraft attitude data. This paper develops a new method for deriving the instrument pointing solutions, along with other optical parameters, by comparing the locations of stars identified in each HI image with the known star positions predicted from a star catalogue. The pointing and optical parameters are varied in an autonomous manner to minimise the discrepancy between the predicted and observed positions of the stars. This method is applied to all HI observations from the beginning of the mission to the end of April 2008. For the vast majority of images a good attitude solution has been obtained with a mean-squared deviation between the observed and predicted star positions of one image pixel or less. Updated values have been obtained for the instrument offsets relative to the spacecraft, and for the optical parameters of the HI cameras. With this method the HI images can be considered as “self-calibrating,” with the actual instrument offsets calculated as a byproduct. The updated pointing results and their by-products have been implemented in SolarSoft.     

First Imaging of Coronal Mass Ejections in the Heliosphere Viewed from Outside the Sun – Earth Line

We show for the first time images of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) viewed using the Heliospheric Imager (HI) instrument aboard the NASA STEREO spacecraft. The HI instruments are wide-angle imaging systems designed to detect CMEs in the heliosphere, in particular, for the first time, observing the propagation of such events along the Sun – Earth line, that is, those directed towards Earth. At the time of writing the STEREO spacecraft are still close to the Earth and the full advantage of the HI dual-imaging has yet to be realised. However, even these early results show that despite severe technical challenges in their design and implementation, the HI instruments can successfully detect CMEs in the heliosphere, and this is an extremely important milestone for CME research. For the principal event being analysed here we demonstrate an ability to track a CME from the corona to over 40 degrees. The time – altitude history shows a constant speed of ascent over at least the first 50 solar radii and some evidence for deceleration at distances of over 20 degrees. Comparisons of associated coronagraph data and the HI images show that the basic structure of the CME remains clearly intact as it propagates from the corona into the heliosphere. Extracting the CME signal requires a consideration of the F-coronal intensity distribution, which can be identified from the HI data. Thus we present the preliminary results on this measured F-coronal intensity and compare these to the modelled F-corona of Koutchmy and Lamy (IAU Colloq. 85, 63, 1985). This analysis demonstrates that CME material some two orders of magnitude weaker than the F-corona can be detected; a specific example at 40 solar radii revealed CME intensities as low as 1.7×10⁻¹⁴ of the solar brightness. These observations herald a new era in CME research as we extend our capability for tracking, in particular, Earth-directed CMEs into the heliosphere.     

Two Years of the STEREO Heliospheric Imagers

Imaging of the heliosphere is a burgeoning area of research. As a result, it is awash with new results, using novel applications, and is demonstrating great potential for future research in a wide range of topical areas. The STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) Heliospheric Imager (HI) instruments are at the heart of this new development, building on the pioneering observations of the SMEI (Solar Mass Ejection Imager) instrument aboard the Coriolis spacecraft. Other earlier heliospheric imaging systems have included ground-based interplanetary scintillation (IPS) facilities and the photometers on the Helios spacecraft. With the HI instruments, we now have routine wide-angle imaging of the inner heliosphere, from vantage points outside the Sun-Earth line. HI has been used to investigate the development of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) as they pass through the heliosphere to 1 AU and beyond. Synoptic mapping has also allowed us to see graphic illustrations of the nature of mass outflow as a function of distance from the Sun – in particular, stressing the complexity of the near-Sun solar wind. The instruments have also been used to image co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), to study the interaction of comets with the solar wind and CMEs, and to witness the impact of CMEs and CIRs on planets. The very nature of this area of research – which brings together aspects of solar physics, space-environment physics, and solar-terrestrial physics – means that the research papers are spread among a wide range of journals from different disciplines. Thus, in this special issue, it is timely and appropriate to provide a review of the results of the first two years of the HI investigations.     

Study of CME Propagation in the Inner Heliosphere: SOHO LASCO, SMEI and STEREO HI Observations of the January 2007 Events

We are investigating the geometric and kinematic characteristics of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) using data obtained by the LASCO coronagraphs, the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI), and the SECCHI imaging experiments on the STEREO spacecraft. The early evolution of CMEs can be tracked by the LASCO C2 and C3 and SECCHI COR1 and COR2 coronagraphs, and the HI and SMEI instruments can track their ICME counterparts through the inner heliosphere. The HI fields of view (4?–?90°) overlap with the SMEI field of view (>?20° to all sky) and, thus, both instrument sets can observe the same ICME. In this paper we present results for ICMEs observed on 24?–?29 January 2007, when the STEREO spacecraft were still near Earth so that both the SMEI and STEREO views of large ICMEs in the inner heliosphere coincided. These results include measurements of the structural and kinematic evolution of two ICMEs and comparisons with drive/drag kinematic, 3D tomographic reconstruction, the HAFv2 kinematic, and the ENLIL MHD models. We find it encouraging that the four model runs generally were in agreement on both the kinematic evolution and appearance of the events. Because it is essential to understand the effects of projection across large distances, that are not generally crucial for events observed closer to the Sun, we discuss our analysis procedure in some detail.     

In situ Observations of CIRs on STEREO,Wind, and ACE During 2007 – 2008

During the 2007 and 2008 solar minimum period, STEREO, Wind, and ACE observed numerous Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) over spatial separations that began with all the spacecraft close to Earth, through STEREO separation angles of ～?80 degrees in the fall of 2008. Over 35 CIR events were of sufficient intensity to allow measurement of He and heavy ion spectra using the IMPACT/SIT, EPACT/STEP and ACE/ULEIS instruments on STEREO, Wind, and ACE, respectively. In addition to differences between the spacecraft expected on the basis of simple corotation, we observed several events where there were markedly different time-intensity profiles from one spacecraft to the next. By comparing the energetic particle intensities and spectral shapes along with solar wind speed we examine the extent to which these differences are due to temporal evolution of the CIR or due to variations in connection to a relatively stable interaction region. Comparing CIRs in the 1996?–?1997 solar minimum period vs. 2007?–?2008, we find that the 2007?–?2008 period had many more CIRs, reflecting the presence of more high-speed solar wind streams, whereas 1997 had almost no CIR activity.

     

FESTIVAL: A Multiscale Visualization Tool for Solar Imaging Data

Since 4 December 2006, the SECCHI instrument suites onboard the two STEREO A and B probes have been imaging the solar corona and the heliosphere on a wide range of angular scales. The EUVI telescopes have a plate scale of 1.7 arcseconds pixel⁻¹, while that of the HI2 wide-angle cameras is 2.15 arcminutes pixel⁻¹, i.e. 75 times larger, with the COR1 and COR2 coronagraphs having intermediate plate scales. These very different instruments, aimed at studying Coronal Mass Ejections and their propagation in the heliosphere, create a data visualization challenge. This paper presents FESTIVAL, a SolarSoftware package originally developed to be able to map the SECCHI data into dynamic composite images of the sky as seen by the STEREO and SOHO probes. Data from other imaging instruments can also be displayed. Using the mouse, the user can quickly and easily zoom in and out and pan through these composite images to explore all spatial scales from EUVI to HI2 while keeping the native resolution of the original data. A large variety of numerical filters can be applied, and additional data (i.e. coordinate grids, stars catalogs, etc.) can be overlaid on the images. The architecture of FESTIVAL is such that it is easy to add support for other instruments and these new data immediately benefit from the already existing capabilities. Also, because its mapping engine is fully 3D, FESTIVAL provides a convenient environment to display images from future out-of-the-Ecliptic solar missions, such as Solar Orbiter or Solar Probe.     

Temporal Evolution of the Solar Wind Bulk Velocity at Solar Minimum by Correlating the STEREO A and B PLASTIC Measurements

The two STEREO spacecraft with nearly identical instrumentation were launched near solar activity minimum and they separate by about 45° per year, providing a unique tool to study the temporal evolution of the solar wind. We analyze the solar wind bulk velocity measured by the two PLASTIC plasma instruments onboard the two STEREO spacecraft. During the first half year of our measurements (March?–?August 2007) we find the typical alternating slow and fast solar wind stream pattern expected at solar minimum. To evaluate the temporal evolution of the solar wind bulk velocity we exclude the spatial variations and calculate the correlation between the solar wind bulk velocity measured by the two spacecraft. We account for the different spacecraft positions in radial distance and longitude by calculating the corresponding time lag. After adjusting for this time lag we compare the solar wind bulk velocity measurements at the two spacecraft and calculate the correlation between the two time-shifted datasets. We show how this correlation decreases as the time difference between two corresponding measurements increases. As a result, the characteristic temporal changes in the solar wind bulk velocity can be inferred. The obtained correlation is 0.95 for a time lag of 0.5 days and 0.85 for 2 days.

     

The SWAP EUV Imaging Telescope. Part II: In-flight Performance and Calibration

The Sun Watcher with Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing (SWAP) telescope was launched on 2 November 2009 onboard the ESA PROBA2 technological mission and has acquired images of the solar corona every one to two minutes for more than two years. The most important technological developments included in SWAP are a radiation-resistant CMOS-APS detector and a novel onboard data-prioritization scheme. Although such detectors have been used previously in space, they have never been used for long-term scientific observations on orbit. Thus SWAP requires a careful calibration to guarantee the science return of the instrument. Since launch we have regularly monitored the evolution of SWAP’s detector response in-flight to characterize both its performance and degradation over the course of the mission. These measurements are also used to reduce detector noise in calibrated images (by subtracting dark-current). Because accurate measurements of detector dark-current require large telescope off-points, we also monitored straylight levels in the instrument to ensure that these calibration measurements are not contaminated by residual signal from the Sun. Here we present the results of these tests and examine the variation of instrumental response and noise as a function of both time and temperature throughout the mission.     

Assessing the Effect of Spacecraft Motion on Single-Spacecraft Solar Wind Tracking Techniques

Recent advances in wide-angle imaging by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) on board the Coriolis spacecraft and more recently by the Heliospheric Imagers (HI) aboard NASA’s Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), have enabled solar wind transients to be imaged and tracked from the Sun to 1 AU and beyond. In this paper we consider two of the techniques that have been used to determine the propagation characteristics of solar wind transients based on single-spacecraft observations, in particular propagation direction and radial speed. These techniques usually assume that the observing spacecraft remains stationary for the duration of observation of the solar wind transient. We determine the inaccuracy introduced by this assumption for the two STEREO spacecraft and find that it can be significant, and it can lead to an overestimation of the transient velocity as seen from STEREO-A and an underestimation as seen by STEREO-B. This has implications for the prediction or solar wind transients at 1 AU and hence is important for the study of space weather.     

A Multispacecraft Analysis of a Small-Scale Transient Entrained by Solar Wind Streams

The images taken by the Heliospheric Imagers (HIs), part of the SECCHI imaging package onboard the pair of STEREO spacecraft, provide information on the radial and latitudinal evolution of the plasma compressed inside corotating interaction regions (CIRs). A plasma density wave imaged by the HI instrument onboard STEREO-B was found to propagate towards STEREO-A, enabling a comparison between simultaneous remote-sensing and in situ observations of its structure to be performed. In situ measurements made by STEREO-A show that the plasma density wave is associated with the passage of a CIR. The magnetic field compressed after the CIR stream interface (SI) is found to have a planar distribution. Minimum variance analysis of the magnetic field vectors shows that the SI is inclined at 54° to the orbital plane of the STEREO-A spacecraft. This inclination of the CIR SI is comparable to the inclination of the associated plasma density wave observed by HI. A small-scale magnetic cloud with a flux rope topology and radial extent of 0.08 AU is also embedded prior to the SI. The pitch-angle distribution of suprathermal electrons measured by the STEREO-A SWEA instrument shows that an open magnetic field topology in the cloud replaced the heliospheric current sheet locally. These observations confirm that HI observes CIRs in difference images when a small-scale transient is caught up in the compression region.     

Connecting Coronal Mass Ejections to Their Solar Active Region Sources: Combining Results from the HELCATS and FLARECAST Projects

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other solar eruptive phenomena can be physically linked by combining data from a multitude of ground-based and space-based instruments alongside models; however, this can be challenging for automated operational systems. The EU Framework Package 7 HELCATS project provides catalogues of CME observations and properties from the Heliospheric Imagers on board the two NASA/STEREO spacecraft in order to track the evolution of CMEs in the inner heliosphere. From the main HICAT catalogue of over 2,000 CME detections, an automated algorithm has been developed to connect the CMEs observed by STEREO to any corresponding solar flares and active-region (AR) sources on the solar surface. CME kinematic properties, such as speed and angular width, are compared with AR magnetic field properties, such as magnetic flux, area, and neutral line characteristics. The resulting LOWCAT catalogue is also compared to the extensive AR property database created by the EU Horizon 2020 FLARECAST project, which provides more complex magnetic field parameters derived from vector magnetograms. Initial statistical analysis has been undertaken on the new data to provide insight into the link between flare and CME events, and characteristics of eruptive ARs. Warning thresholds determined from analysis of the evolution of these parameters is shown to be a useful output for operational space weather purposes. Parameters of particular interest for further analysis include total unsigned flux, vertical current, and current helicity. The automated method developed to create the LOWCAT catalogue may also be useful for future efforts to develop operational CME forecasting.     

Transient Structures and Stream Interaction Regions in the Solar Wind: Results from EISCAT Interplanetary Scintillation, STEREO HI and Venus Express ASPERA-4 Measurements

We discuss the detection and evolution of a complex series of transient and quasi-static solar-wind structures in the days following the well-known comet 2P/Encke tail disconnection event in April 2007. The evolution of transient solar-wind structures ranging in size from <10⁵ km to >10⁶ km was characterised using one-minute time resolution observation of Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) made using the European Incoherent SCATter (EISCAT) radar system. Simultaneously, the global structure and evolution of these features was characterised by the Heliospheric Imagers (HI) on the Solar TERrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, placing the IPS observations in context. Of particular interest was the observation of one transient in the slow wind, apparently being swept up and entrained by a Stream Interaction Region (SIR). The SIR itself was later detected in-situ at Venus by the Analyser of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-4) instrument on the Venus Express (VEX) spacecraft. The availability of such diverse data sources over a range of different time resolutions enables us to develop a global picture of these complex events that would not have been possible if these instruments were used in isolation. We suggest that the range of solar-wind transients discussed here may be the interplanetary counterparts of transient structures previously reported from coronagraph observations and are likely to correspond to transient magnetic structures reported in in-situ measurements in interplanetary space. The results reported here also provide the first indication of heliocentric distances at which transients become entrained.     

Assessing the Accuracy of CME Speed and Trajectory Estimates from STEREO Observations Through a Comparison of Independent Methods

We have estimated the speed and direction of propagation of a number of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) using single-spacecraft data from the STEREO Heliospheric Imager (HI) wide-field cameras. In general, these values are in good agreement with those predicted by Thernisien, Vourlidas, and Howard in Solar Phys. 256, 111?–?130 (2009) using a forward modelling method to fit CMEs imaged by the STEREO COR2 coronagraphs. The directions of the CMEs predicted by both techniques are in good agreement despite the fact that many of the CMEs under study travel in directions that cause them to fade rapidly in the HI images. The velocities estimated from both techniques are in general agreement although there are some interesting differences that may provide evidence for the influence of the ambient solar wind on the speed of CMEs. The majority of CMEs with a velocity estimated to be below 400 km?s^?1 in the COR2 field of view have higher estimated velocities in the HI field of view, while, conversely, those with COR2 velocities estimated to be above 400 km?s^?1 have lower estimated HI velocities. We interpret this as evidence for the deceleration of fast CMEs and the acceleration of slower CMEs by interaction with the ambient solar wind beyond the COR2 field of view. We also show that the uncertainties in our derived parameters are influenced by the range of elongations over which each CME can be tracked. In order to reduce the uncertainty in the predicted arrival time of a CME at 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) to within six hours, the CME needs to be tracked out to at least 30 degrees elongation. This is in good agreement with predictions of the accuracy of our technique based on Monte Carlo simulations. Within the set of studied CMEs, there are two clear events that were predicted from the HI data to travel over another spacecraft; in-situ measurements at these other spacecraft confirm the accuracy of these predictions. The ability of the HI cameras to image Corotating Interaction Region (CIR)-entrained transients as well as CMEs can result in some ambiguity when trying to distinguishing individual signatures.     

Formation of a White-Light Jet Within a Quadrupolar Magnetic Configuration

The cadence and resolution of solar images have been increasing dramatically with the launch of new spacecraft such as STEREO and SDO. This increase in data volume provides new opportunities for solar researchers, but the efficient processing and analysis of these data create new challenges. We introduce a fuzzy-based solar feature-detection system in this article. The proposed system processes SDO/AIA images using fuzzy rules to detect coronal holes and active regions. This system is fast and it can handle different size images. It is tested on six months of solar data (1 October 2010 to 31 March 2011) to generate filling factors (ratio of area of solar feature to area of rest of the solar disc) for active regions and coronal holes. These filling factors are then compared to SDO/EVE/ESP irradiance measurements. The correlation between active-region filling factors and irradiance measurements is found to be very high, which has encouraged us to design a time-series prediction system using Radial Basis Function Networks to predict ESP irradiance measurements from our generated filling factors.     

An annular eclipse on May 31, 2003, observed in extreme ultraviolet

The CORONAS-F spacecraft crossed the zone of the ring solar eclipse three times on May 31, 2003. A considerable decrease in solar radiation was detected by the spacecraft instruments for these moments. The passages through the eclipse zone were registered by the VUSS instrument, which measured the shortwave solar radiation flux near the hydrogen Lyman alpha line, and by the DIFOS instrument, which was sensitive to infrared, visible, and near-ultraviolet radiation. The eclipse is also clearly seen in solar images obtained by the X-ray SPIRIT telescope. Some details of measurement results are discussed.     

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Two Solar Coronal Mass Ejections Using the STEREO Spacecraft

Previous attempts to produce three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have required either modeling efforts or comparisons with secondary associated eruptions near the solar surface. This is because coronagraphs are only able to produce sky-plane-projected images of CMEs and it has hence been impossible to overcome projection effects by using coronagraphs alone. The SECCHI suite aboard the twin STEREO spacecraft allows us to provide the means for 3-D reconstruction of CMEs directly from coronagraph measurements alone for the first time. We present these measurements from two CMEs observed in November 2007. By identifying common features observed simultaneously with the LASCO coronagraphs aboard SOHO and the COR coronagraphs aboard STEREO we have triangulated the source region of both CMEs. We present the geometrical analysis required for this triangulation and identify the location of the CME in solar-meridional, ecliptic, and Carrington coordinates. None of the two events were associated with an easily detectable solar surface eruption, so this triangulation technique is the only means by which the source location of these CMEs could be identified. We present evidence that both CMEs originated from the same magnetic structure on the Sun, but from a different magnetic field configuration. Our results reveal some insight into the evolution of the high corona magnetic field, including its behavior over time scales of a few days and its reconfiguration after a major eruption.     

Detection of Interstellar Dust with STEREO/WAVES at 1 AU

Most in situ measurements of cosmic dust have been carried out with dedicated dust instruments. However, dust particles can also be detected with radio and plasma wave instruments. The high velocity impact of a dust particle generates a small crater on the spacecraft, and the dust particle and the crater material are vaporised and partly ionised. The resulting electric charge can be detected with plasma instruments designed to measure electric waves. Since 2007 the STEREO/WAVES instrument has recorded a large number of events due to dust impacts. Here we will concentrate on the study of those impacts produced by dust grains originating from the local interstellar cloud. We present these fluxes during five years of the STEREO mission. Based on model calculations, we determine the direction of arrival of interstellar dust. We find that the interstellar dust direction of arrival is ～260^°, in agreement with previous studies.

     

In Situ Observations of Solar Wind Stream Interface Evolution

The heliocentric orbits of the two STEREO satellites are similar in radius and ecliptic latitude, with separation in longitude increasing by about 45° per year. This arrangement provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of stream interfaces near 1 AU over time scales of hours to a few days, much less than the period of a Carrington rotation. Assuming nonevolving solar wind sources that corotate with the Sun, we calculated the expected time and longitude of arrival of stream interfaces at the Ahead observatory based on the in situ solar wind speeds measured at the Behind observatory. We find agreement to within 5° between the expected and actual arrival longitude until the spacecraft are separated by more than 20° in heliocentric inertial longitude. This corresponds to about one day between the measurement times. Much larger deviations, up to 25° in longitude, are observed after 20° separation. Some of the deviations can be explained by a latitude difference between the spacecraft, but other deviations most likely result from evolution of the source region. Both remote and in situ measurements show that changes at the source boundary can occur on a time scale much shorter than one solar rotation. In 32 of 41 cases, the interface was observed earlier than expected at STEREO/Ahead.     

Simulated (STEREO) Views of the Solar Wind Disturbances Following the Coronal Mass Ejections of 1 August 2010

Images observed by the twin spacecraft Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) A and B appear as complex structures for two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on 1 August 2010. Therefore, a series of sky maps of Thomson-scattered white light by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) on 1 August 2010 are simulated using the Hakamada–Akasofu–Fry (HAF) three-dimensional solar-wind model. A comparison between the simulated images and observations of STEREO-A and -B clarifies the structure and evolution of ICMEs (including shocks) in the observed images. The results demonstrate that the simulated images from the HAF model are very useful in the interpretation of the observed images when the ICMEs overlap within the fields of view of the instruments onboard STEREO-A and -B.