Nishu Karna

IBEX-Hi observed four heliotail lobes above ∼2 keV: the energetic neutral atom (ENA)-suppressed port (P) and starboard (SB) near the ecliptic and the ENA-enhanced north (N) and south (S) at midlatitudes. They trace how the latitude-dependent solar wind (SW) and solar and interstellar magnetic fields shape the downwind heliosheath (HS). Prior work, using five nonoverlapping periods over 11 yr, found cyclic P–SB motion and equatorward N–S motion in phase with the solar cycle. We extend this analysis through 2022 using 14 smoothed yearly maps and add three methods: an intensity-weighted moment tensor (for lobe shapes), spatial and temporal block uncertainty estimates, and elliptical fits to lobe centers (for motion loci). At ∼4.3 keV, downwind-hemispheric intensity drops ∼2.4× from 2009 to 2016, partially recovering by 2022; all four lobes weaken and recover together, lagging the polar coronal hole area by ∼3 yr. P and SB track the reported cyclic motion; SB shows the largest range (∼52° longitude, ∼36° latitude). N and S move equatorward through 2017 (N ∼59° to ∼27°, S ∼−48° to ∼−24°), partially returning by 2022. The N–S great circle lies near an ecliptic meridian ( α ∼ 89 . ° 3), P–SB near the ecliptic ( β ∼ 23 . ° 8), and they are not orthogonal ( γ ∼78 . ° 1), qualitatively consistent with interstellar field draping around the heliopause. Fitted motion loci constrain models: the P-lobe is least elongated, the S-lobe most elongated, the SB-lobe longest, and the N-lobe least reliable owing to ribbon contribution. Results constrain the distant tailward HS and its evolution with the solar cycle, SW, and charge-exchange cooling.

We investigate the thermal properties of a solar flare by the observations of the soft X-ray Telescope on board Hinode and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Our analysis reveals a tenuous but hot plasma cloud located above the flare loops. The flare loops and plasma cloud exhibit independent temperature profiles as a function of time, implying that different heating mechanisms are present in these structures. We interpret the plasma cloud as an eruptive filament directly heated in the corona via magnetic reconnection that occurs when a rising filament interacts with this eruptive filament. Previous disk-integrated solar soft X-ray spectral measurements of this flare using the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat-1 (MinXSS-1) inferred coronal abundances at the flare peak. However, MinXSS synthetic spectra from AIA observations show that the plasma cloud is too tenuous to be detected in MinXSS-1; thus, the coronal abundances of low first ionization potential elements must be in emission from the flare loops. Furthermore, we demonstrate the nonnegligible differences in differential emission measures between coronal and photospheric abundance models. These results highlight the importance of instruments capable of simultaneous spectral and spatial diagnostics during large-scale solar events. Such coordinated measurements would enable more accurate thermal and compositional analyses and deeper insight into the underlying physical mechanisms.

We investigate the aftermath of a giant quiescent solar filament eruption on 2023 December 24. One feature of the eruption is an extensive fan above the filament channel that is about 3 times as wide as similar structures that appear above active regions (ARs) during solar flares. The fan contains numerous supra-arcade downflows (SADs), and we investigate the largest SADs with continuous Hinode X-ray Telescope observations. The measured maximum width of the SADs in this event is at least 3 times the maximum width of SADs observed in AR flares, whereas the velocities of the largest SADs are similar to the typical values of AR SADs. The kinetic characteristics of the largest SADs observed in this event align with previous model predictions, where SADs originate from the nonlinear development of Rayleigh–Taylor-type instabilities. In this scenario, the larger system size allows the existence of larger-scale instabilities, while the development of the velocities of these instabilities is expected to be independent of the system size. Compared to AR flares, the temperature and emission measure in this event are lower, and there is less overall radiation, resulting in no evident Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite signature. Similar to those in AR flares, SADs show lower temperatures compared to the surrounding fan plasma. Our observations show that SADs are present in a wide variety of eruptions. The reconnection mechanisms present in quiescent filament eruptions are similar to those driving more compact eruptions originating from ARs.

Helmet streamers are common structures that shape the corona at the largest scales, as observed in eclipse and white-light images. Helmet streamers overlie one cavity embedding a prominence channel and are surrounded by an open field of opposite-polarity coronal holes. In this study, we present multispacecraft observations of a spectacular prominence-cavity eruption from the southeastern solar limb accompanied by a geoeffective coronal mass ejection (CME), observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, Solar Orbiter, Advanced Composition Explorer, and Wind. We produce 3D magnetic field configurations before and during the eruption using the flux-rope insertion method and magnetofrictional relaxation that are consistent with the observations. We also performed a differential emission measure analysis to study the thermal structure of the helmet streamer prominence-cavity region before and after the eruption. We note that because of the considerable length of the prominence, it was possible to capture the eruption using in situ measurements by multiple spacecraft. Moreover, our multispacecraft in situ analysis shows that the CME propagating in the precondition medium varies as a function of longitude in the heliosphere.

We present a magnetic configuration of a compound solar eruption observed on 2012 March 10, from NOAA AR 11429 near the disk center, which displayed a soft X-ray sigmoid before the eruption. We constructed a series of magnetic field models, including double-decker flux rope configurations, using the flux rope insertion method. This produces three-dimensional coronal magnetic field models constrained by the photospheric magnetogram and observed EUV coronal structures. We used different combinations of flux rope paths. We found that two flux ropes sharing the same path at different heights quickly experience a partial merging in the initial iteration of the magnetofrictional relaxation process. Different paths with less than 30% overlap allowed us to construct stable double-decker structures. The high spatial and temporal resolution of the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly facilitated the selection of a best-fit model that matches the observations best. Moreover, by varying fluxes in this validated nonlinear force-free field double-decker configuration, we successfully reproduce all three scenarios of eruptions of double-decker configurations: (i) eruption due to the instability of higher flux rope; (ii) eruption due to rising lower flux rope and merging with higher flux rope; and (iii) eruption due to the instability of both flux ropes. This demonstrates that magnetofrictional simulation can capture the large-scale magnetic structure of eruptions for a realistic field configuration at eruption onset.

Whitepaper #127 in the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033. Main topics: basic research. Additional topics: ground-based missions/projects; solar physics; space-based missions/projects; user-need-driven basic space weather research.

Whitepaper #333 in the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033. Main topics: space weather applications; basic research. Additional topics: space weather research/operations/research loop; space weather research/applications/operations pipeline; […]

In this study, we present an observational analysis of a coronal hole (CH) observed on 2018 November 1 and solar wind (SW) that originated from it, using the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations at 68 solar radii, ACE and WIND data at 1 au, and interplanetary scintillation (IPS) observations from 0.2 to 1 au. The CH-originated SW stream was observed by L1 on 2018 November 4 and by PSP on 2018 November 15. We examined the CH for nine Carrington Rotations (CR) and find that the SW stream to reach L1 varied from one CR to other. We find that the pressure, temperature, and magnetic fields increase as the speed of the SW increases and the density decreases with distance. We noticed suprathermal particle enhancement at and after the stream interaction region in both PSP and L1 observations, but the enhancement lasted longer in PSP compared to measurements made at L1. The multiple-rotation observations of the CH imply that any differences in observations between PSP and spacecraft at L1 are due to the radial evolution of the solar wind stream rather than of the CH or the source plasma itself. In addition, IPS measured the radio signal irregularities driven by the SW. Furthermore, we employed a standard analytical model to extrapolate the magnetic field at larger heights. We find that the extrapolated magnetic field at 68 R _⊙ and 1 au matches well with the magnetic field measured by PSP and OMNI.

In this study, we present the magnetic configuration of an erupting pseudostreamer observed on 2015 April 19, on the southwest limb of the Sun, with a prominence cavity embedded inside. The eruption resulted in a partial halo coronal mass ejection. The prominence eruption begins with a slow rise and then evolves to a fast-rise phase. We analyze this erupting pseudostreamer using the flux-rope insertion method and magnetofrictional relaxation to establish a sequence of plausible out-of-equilibrium magnetic configurations. This approach allows the direct incorporation of observations of structures seen in the corona (filament and cavity) to appropriately model the pseudostreamer based on SDO/HMI line-of-sight photospheric magnetograms. We also perform a topological analysis in order to determine the location of quasiseparatrix layers (QSLs) in the models, producing Q-maps to examine how the QSL locations progress in the higher iterations. We found that the axial flux in our best-fit unstable model was a factor of 20 times higher than we found in our marginally stable case. We computed the average magnetic field strength of the prominence and found that the unstable model exhibits twice the average field strength of the stable model. The eruption height from our modeling matches very well with the prominence eruption height measured from the AIA observation. The Q-maps derived from the model reproduce structures observed in LASCO/C2. Thus, the modeling and topological analysis results are fully consistent with the observed morphological features, implying that we have captured the large magnetic structure of the erupting filament in our magnetofrictional simulation.