HELCATS: HELIOSPHERIC CATALOGUING, ANALYSIS AND TECHNIQUE SERVICE. Work Package 2

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1 HELCATS: HELIOSPHERIC CATALOGUING, ANALYSIS AND TECHNIQUE SERVICE Work Package 2

2 Work Package 2 Producing a definitive catalogue of CMEs imaged by STEREO/HI

3 WP2: This WP provides the foundation for this project (including scientific coordination), namely the production of a catalogue of CMEs in the heliosphere. The catalogue will be produced from manual inspection of STEREO/HI data but use of automated techniques will be investigated. Comparisons with coronal CME catalogues will be made.

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5 WP2 Task 1: STFC Manual cataloguing of STEREO/HI CMEs WP2 Task 2: ROB Automatic cataloguing of STEREO/HI CMEs WP2 Task 3: UGOE, STFC, ROB Comparison of CME catalogues WP2 Task 4: STFC Scientific management

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8 Work Package 2: Task 1 (WP2.1) Manual cataloguing of STEREO/HI CMEs

9 Each STEREO/HI instrument has detected many hundreds of CMEs in the heliosphere since the start of the science phase of the mission in April 2007 (e.g. Harrison et al. 2009; 2012). In Task 2.1, we will, via visual inspection of the HI-1 images from the two spacecraft independently, catalogue these CMEs in terms of their basic observational parameters.

10 STEREO: Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory STEREO's scientific objectives are to: Understand the causes and mechanisms of CME initiation; Characterize the propagation of CMEs through the heliosphere; Discover the mechanisms and sites of energetic particle acceleration in the low corona and the interplanetary medium; Improve the determination of the structure of the ambient solar wind.

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12 STEREO-B: 165 degrees from Earth 37 degrees apart STEREO-A: 158 degrees from Earth

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14 Extreme Ultra Violet Imager (EUVI): A full Sun instrument that images the chromosphere and corona out to 1.7 R Sun (POS) in four emission lines: He II 304Å, Fe IX/X 171Å, Fe XII 195Å and Fe XV 284Å. SECCHI/EUVI

15 SECCHI/COR1 & COR2 Two white-light CORonagraphs (COR1 & COR2): Image the corona from: COR1: R Sun (POS) COR2: R Sun (POS)

16 SECCHI/HI Heliospheric Imager (HI): consists of two CCD-based visiblelight imagers, HI-1 and HI-2, that, between them, image the outer corona/inner heliosphere from R Sun (POS). HI-1: HI-2: 20 x 20 field-of-view centered on the ecliptic plane Image pixel size: 70 arcsec (1024x1024 nominal image size) Spectral pass-band: nm Nominal image cadence: 40 min 70 x 70 field-of view centered on the ecliptic plane Image pixel size: 4 arcmin (1024x1024 nominal image size) Spectral pass-band: nm Nominal image cadence: 120 min

17 STEREO-A: HI door opened 13 Dec 2006 STEREO-B: HI door opened on 11 Jan 2007 Radiator Door HI-1 HI-2 Inner Baffles To Sun Forward Baffles

18 Level 0 HI-1A image

19 Level 2 HI-1A image (1-day running background subtracted)

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24 WP2.1: Manual cataloguing of STEREO/HI CMEs From visual inspection, for each spacecraft independently, we will (under WP2.1) catalogue for each CME*: Entry time of CME into HI-1 field of view; Position angle (PA) of central CME axis; Position angle (PA) span; Possibility of CME being a halo. * Identified according to threshold criteria in terms of PA and elongation

25 WP2.3: Comparison of CME catalogues In WP2.3, the manual HI catalogues, created under WP3.1, will be: Inter-compared between the two spacecraft, and the catalogue augmented accordingly; Compared with the automatically-generated STEREO/HI catalogue produced under WP2.2; Compared to CME catalogues derived from coronal observations (in particular from STEREO and SOHO coronagraphs), some created under the auspices of previous FP7 projects. The catalogues created in WP2 will form the basis of the work performed under WP3 and WP4 (and feed into WP6 and WP7).