Angelos Vourlidas
Johns Hopkins University APL
High-resolution Imaging of Solar Wind and Transients from ‘Within’ and the Future of Heliospheric Imaging
The deployment of heliospheric imagers on the STEREO mission in 2007 resulted in a quantum leap in imaging of the inner heliosphere, from CMEs, shocks, and stream interaction regions down to small blobs. The launch of Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Solar Orbiter took those capabilities to an unprecedented level. The WIPSR imager on PSP, in particular, is imaging coronal structures from ‘within’ uncovering a wealth of detail that remains to be fully understood.
The increased solar activity in the last couple of years has resulted in several CME fly-bys and fly-throughs(!) for both missions. The images demonstrate clearly the magnetic flux-rope morphology of CMEs but at the same time reveal a complex, high-detailed internal structure that is challenging to understand and to compare with the nearly-simultaneous in-situ measurements and our decades-long experience from 1 AU remote sensing work. Why is that?
In this talk, I review the most important advances in coronal and inner-heliospheric images of the last 10 years, including fly-through observations of both transient and quiescent structures. I discuss the challenges facing modeling and interpretation efforts arising from our new views of the inner heliosphere and corona, and offer suggestions for future instrumentation and mission architectures to capitalize on the new insights gained from imaging to date.