2D and 3D Polar Plume Analysis from the Three Vantage Positions of STEREO/EUVI A, B, and SOHO/EIT

Polar plumes appear as elongated objects starting at the solar polar regions. Here we analyze these objects from a sequence of images taken simultaneously by the three spacecraft telescopes STEREO/EUVI A and B, and SOHO/EIT. We establish a method capable of automatically identifying plumes in solar EUV images close to the limb at 1.01?–?1.39?R _⊙ in order to study their temporal evolution. This plume-identification method is based on a multiscale Hough-wavelet analysis. Then two methods to determine the 3D localization and structure of the plumes are discussed: first, tomography using filtered back-projection and including the differential rotation of the Sun and, second, conventional stereoscopic triangulation. We show that tomography and stereoscopy are complementary for studying polar plumes. We also show that this systematic 2D identification and the proposed methods of 3D reconstruction are well suited to identify plumes individually and also to analyze the distribution of plumes and inter-plume regions. Finally, the results are discussed, focusing on plume position and cross-sectional area.