Seaton, Daniel ; Caspi, Amir ; Tsang, Constantine ; DeForest, Craig ; Bryans, Paul ; DeLuca, Edward ; Tomczyk, Steven ; Burkepile, Joan ; Casey, Thomas ; Collier, John ; Darrow, Donald ; Del Rosso, Dominic ; Durda, Daniel ; Gallagher, Peter ; Gascar, Jasmine ; Golub, Leon ; Jacyna, Matthew ; Johnson, David ; Judge, Philip ; Klemm, Cary ; Laurent, Glenn ; Lewis, Johanna ; Mallini, Charles ; Parent, Thomas ; Propp, Timothy ; Steffl, Andrew ; Warner, Jeff ; West, Matthew ; Wiseman, John ; Yates, Mallory ; Zhukov, Andrei

Talk presented at AGU Washington DC on 2018-12-10

Abstract: We present current results of solar coronal measurements from airborne observations of the 2017 Great American Total Solar Eclipse using two of NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft, each equipped with two 8.7-inch telescopes feeding high-sensitivity visible (green line and nearby continuum) and medium-wave infrared (3–5 μm) cameras operating at high cadence (30 Hz) with ∼3 arcsec/pixel platescale and ±3 RSun fields of view. The two aircraft flew along the eclipse path, separated by ∼110 km, to observed a total of ∼7.5 minutes of totality in both visible and MWIR. Our MWIR observations reveal a highly structured corona out to heights as large as 2 RSun, and reveal prominence cavities and cool prominence plasma; complex, hot structures associated with active regions; voids associated with coronal holes; and a variety of other structures that have not been previously observed in this wavelength range. We compare these results to simultaneous observations from wide field-of-view imagers such as the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on GOES-16, and spectral measurements from the AIR-Spec, which flew concurrently on NCAR’s HIAPER GV, and discuss the relationships, which can help us interpret our observations in this little-studied spectral band. Observations in both visible and MWIR enable groundbreaking studies of high-speed coherent motion – including possible Alfvén waves and nanojets – in the lower and middle corona that could shed light on coronal heating processes and the formation and stability of coronal structures. We review the WB-57 eclipse mission and the current results of analysis on the visible and IR coronal measurements, along with an outlook for future analysis and missions.

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Funding: 3ESA-PROBA2SOC/3ESA-PROBA2SOC/3ESA-PROBA2SOC