bright outflows on coronagrams

[Philalethes]

Does anyone know what is causing the slowly moving/expanding bright outflows currently visible on the coronagrams, particularly on the south-"eastern" part of the disk? There has been some small eruptions around there lately, but it looks to me like there's a steady outflow of some sort (just what it looks like, no idea if that's true at all); maybe I just haven't been paying attention well enough, but I can't recall seeing something that prominent before (then again, maybe I have and maybe it's nothing special at all).

Here's from a few hours after it started expanding:

And here at its widest and brightest ~7 hours ago:

And here the latest:

If I'd only seen a single one of these images I would have suspected that it were an eruption of some sort, but it seems to have persisted for a while.

I'm sure someone out there can enlighten me.

[Jesterface23]

To the southeast, it looks like there are two very slow CMEs that pass through the imagery.

Helmet streamers looks to be part of it as well. The solar wind stretching magnetic loops causing the bright streams,
https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/feature3.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_streamer

[Newbie]

4 hours ago, Philalethes said:

Does anyone know what is causing the slowly moving/expanding bright outflows currently visible on the coronagrams, particularly on the south-"eastern" part of the disk? There has been some small eruptions around there lately, but it looks to me like there's a steady outflow of some sort (just what it looks like, no idea if that's true at all); maybe I just haven't been paying attention well enough, but I can't recall seeing something that prominent before (then again, maybe I have and maybe it's nothing special at all).

Here's from a few hours after it started expanding:

And here at its widest and brightest ~7 hours ago:

And here the latest:

If I'd only seen a single one of these images I would have suspected that it were an eruption of some sort, but it seems to have persisted for a while.

I'm sure someone out there can enlighten me.

On June 15 CACTus shows there were several low speed long duration CME’s from multiple flares near the SE limb.

There were around 36 instances of recorded data from CME’s. The bulk of the recordings being on the Eastern side of the sun.

Source: suntoday.lmsal.com

Of interest, there was an S1 Solar Radiation storm earlier today not sure if it was before or after 12am UTC. Hence 15th or 16th

N.

[Philalethes]

1 hour ago, Jesterface23 said:

To the southeast, it looks like there are two very slow CMEs that pass through the imagery.

Helmet streamers looks to be part of it as well. The solar wind stretching magnetic loops causing the bright streams,
https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/feature3.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_streamer

Yeah, I think those are the small eruptions I mentioned.

And I did consider that it could be a streamer, it just seems abnormally large and bright to me; are you suggesting it might be a combination of multiple streamers?

18 minutes ago, Newbie said:

On June 15 CACTus shows there were several low speed long duration CME’s from multiple flares near the SE limb.

There were around 36 instances of recorded data from CME’s. The bulk of the recordings being on the Eastern side of the sun.

Yeah, I think those are the eruptions I mentioned, but I'm not sure if that explains that really bright and persistent part of the imagery. Are you suggesting it's a constant train of extremely slow-moving CMEs?

20 minutes ago, Newbie said:

Of interest, there was an S1 Solar Radiation storm earlier today not sure if it was before or after 12am UTC. Hence 15th or 16th

Really? I didn't register that, and I don't see it in the data. Where was this reported/what data is it based on?

[Jesterface23]

36 minutes ago, Philalethes said:

And I did consider that it could be a streamer, it just seems abnormally large and bright to me; are you suggesting it might be a combination of multiple streamers?

The CME still has magnetic loops connected from the source, so maybe a combination of the brighter CME and it is pulling the streamer further out as well

[Philalethes]

17 minutes ago, Jesterface23 said:

The CME still has magnetic loops connected from the source, so maybe a combination of the brighter CME and it is pulling the streamer further out as well

That sounds fairly reasonable, and it looks like it could be the case from how the CMEs interact with it; I don't know if it's actually the explanation or not, but I'll probably mark it as the solution tomorrow if there's no input from anyone else to suggest anything else.

[Drax Spacex]

The last time I saw a structure like this on the limb, the bulk did eventually release as a CME.

[Newbie]

6 hours ago, Philalethes said:

Really? I didn't register that, and I don't see it in the data. Where was this reported/what data is it based on?

I based it on the Goes X-Ray Flux data chart I observed yesterday as a yellow box S1 but I also checked back through the graphs just now and couldn’t find anything either.

Conclusion: I must have read it wrongly.

Apologies for the misinformation.

Thanks for pointing it out PB 😊

N.

Edited June 16 by Newbie

[Phoenix444]

Hello. I am new here but I wanted to add that there was a period yesterday that we upgraded to a G1 and then G2 at a k index of 6 for a period of time. I was watching it closely. It lists them in the Reports Tab here  labeled NOAA SWPC Alerts, Watches and Warnings. 

I have been wondering what the bright outflows were myself honestly. I wrongly assumed that was from the coronal holes but that doesn't seem to add up so my next guess would be prominences because it seems to loop in the SDO images? 

In the CACTus videos of CMEs they seem to come out of the same area the outflows do. 

I Hope that helps. 

[Nilesh]

16 hours ago, Newbie said:

On June 15 CACTus shows there were several low speed long duration CME’s from multiple flares near the SE limb.

I think plasma is getting thick , that's why it taking long duration to drop back. We have to watch sun very carefully. Parker Solar Probe data has to be analyzed fast specially when it was passed through the Corona.   

[Philalethes]

12 hours ago, Newbie said:

I based it on the Goes X-Ray Flux data chart I observed yesterday as a yellow box S1 but I also checked back through the graphs just now and couldn’t find anything either.

Conclusion: I must have read it wrongly.

Apologies for the misinformation.

Thanks for pointing it out PB 😊

N.

Glad to know I'm not crazy (yet), heh.

11 hours ago, Phoenix444 said:

Hello. I am new here but I wanted to add that there was a period yesterday that we upgraded to a G1 and then G2 at a k index of 6 for a period of time. I was watching it closely. It lists them in the Reports Tab here  labeled NOAA SWPC Alerts, Watches and Warnings. 

I have been wondering what the bright outflows were myself honestly. I wrongly assumed that was from the coronal holes but that doesn't seem to add up so my next guess would be prominences because it seems to loop in the SDO images? 

In the CACTus videos of CMEs they seem to come out of the same area the outflows do. 

I Hope that helps. 

Yeah, there's another thread that's typically used to discuss geomagnetic activity that you could check out.

As for those outflows I was wondering about that myself, and checked for CHs at first too, but so far Jesterface23's explanation still seems the only reasonable proposal, although I'm not entirely sure. But yeah, it did seem to appear around the of the first CMEs, and I didn't notice any streamer activity at that point, but the heliomagnetic field is really complicated, so it's hard to say.

2 hours ago, Nilesh said:

I think plasma is getting thick , that's why it taking long duration to drop back. We have to watch sun very carefully. Parker Solar Probe data has to be analyzed fast specially when it was passed through the Corona.   

Yeah, it seems like that the bright area mostly likely does represent an area of dense plasma (like Drax said, maybe it might release too). PSP is currently on the other side, though, and this feature will likely be gone by the time PSP interacts with it.

It looks like it's diminishing now, however.

[Nilesh]

43 minutes ago, Philalethes said:

Parker Solar Probe data has to be analyzed fast specially when it was passed through the Corona. 

 When PSP previously  passed  through the Corona (In terms of temperature there).  We have to closely analyses every active spot. Sun's surface seems  more darker at present. It should be compare with last month data in terms of Sun's surface brightness, if possible. 

[Newbie]

I wrote this piece last year sometime in response to a question from MinYoongi.

Quite often structures are referred to when discussing CME’s. 
Whether you would refer to it as a thickening of the plasma I’m not sure.

1 hour ago, Philalethes said:

Glad to know I'm not crazy (yet), heh.

Yeah, there's another thread that's typically used to discuss geomagnetic activity that you could check out.

As for those outflows I was wondering about that myself, and checked for CHs at first too, but so far Jesterface23's explanation still seems the only reasonable proposal, although I'm not entirely sure. But yeah, it did seem to appear around the of the first CMEs, and I didn't notice any streamer activity at that point, but the heliomagnetic field is really complicated, so it's hard to say.

Yeah, it seems like that the bright area mostly likely does represent an area of dense plasma (like Drax said, maybe it might release too). PSP is currently on the other side, though, and this feature will likely be gone by the time PSP interacts with it.

It looks like it's diminishing now, however.

PB  I think I missed the point of the question originally. Also I believe part of the reason was multiple CME’s and I wouldn’t discount sympathetic filament eruptions either caused by helmet streamers.

These are explained in the link above.

Lol not crazy no! Not yet 🤣

N.

3 hours ago, Nilesh said:

I think plasma is getting thick , that's why it taking long duration to drop back. We have to watch sun very carefully. Parker Solar Probe data has to be analyzed fast specially when it was passed through the Corona.   

There are certainly structures within the CME’s which may be what you mean by thick. There are descriptions for some of these structures in the link above.

N.

[Nilesh]

40 minutes ago, Newbie said:

There are certainly structures within the CME’s which may be what you mean by thick. There are descriptions for some of these structures in the link above.

N.

Your quote from you link "Recent observations of the solar corona with the LASCO coronagraph on board of the SOHO spacecraft have revealed the occurrence of triple helmet streamers even during solar minimum, which occasionally go unstable and give rise to large coronal mass ejections. "  So  it would occur in presently going Solar Maxima too. But if it is actual dense plasma and in coming period of time become more denser  or as per your link " triple helmet streamers " start producing every active spot. M just just thinking about the Impact. 

[Newbie]

36 minutes ago, Nilesh said:

Your quote from you link "Recent observations of the solar corona with the LASCO coronagraph on board of the SOHO spacecraft have revealed the occurrence of triple helmet streamers even during solar minimum, which occasionally go unstable and give rise to large coronal mass ejections. "  So  it would occur in presently going Solar Maxima too. But if it is actual dense plasma and in coming period of time become more denser  or as per your link " triple helmet streamers " start producing every active spot. M just just thinking about the Impact. 

In solar physics, helmet streamers are large, loop-like structures that are often observed in the Sun's corona during periods of low to moderate solar activity. They appear as bright, arching structures that extend outward from the Sun's surface, resembling a helmet or a coronal helmet. These streamers are composed of magnetic field lines that are twisted and looped due to the complex magnetic activity occurring on the Sun.

Helmet streamers are associated with the Sun's magnetic field and are typically found in regions where opposite magnetic polarities are in close proximity. The intense magnetic fields within these streamers trap the hot, ionized gas or plasma, forming the bright structures we observe. They are often seen surrounding active regions such as sunspots or coronal holes.

One important aspect of helmet streamers is their connection to the solar wind. The solar wind is a continuous flow of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) that are ejected from the Sun into space. Helmet streamers play a role in the generation of the solar wind by acting as conduits for its release. The solar wind is accelerated along the open magnetic field lines that extend from the tips of the streamers, carrying particles and magnetic energy away from the Sun.
N.

[Nilesh]

38 minutes ago, Newbie said:

In solar physics, helmet streamers are large, loop-like structures that are often observed in the Sun's corona during periods of low to moderate solar activity. They appear as bright, arching structures that extend outward from the Sun's surface, resembling a helmet or a coronal helmet. These streamers are composed of magnetic field lines that are twisted and looped due to the complex magnetic activity occurring on the Sun.

Helmet streamers are associated with the Sun's magnetic field and are typically found in regions where opposite magnetic polarities are in close proximity. The intense magnetic fields within these streamers trap the hot, ionized gas or plasma, forming the bright structures we observe. They are often seen surrounding active regions such as sunspots or coronal holes.

One important aspect of helmet streamers is their connection to the solar wind. The solar wind is a continuous flow of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) that are ejected from the Sun into space. Helmet streamers play a role in the generation of the solar wind by acting as conduits for its release. The solar wind is accelerated along the open magnetic field lines that extend from the tips of the streamers, carrying particles and magnetic energy away from the Sun.
N.

I just felt the CME is bit dense . becoming more denser in coming period of time is problematic.   

[Philalethes]

There was an eruption a few hours ago that might have interacted with this plasma:

The latest C2 coronagram shows what seems like a fairly dense eruption, judging by all the above information I assume it could be dragging the plasma even further along and with it (a sort of "release" as was mentioned, although not all of it by the looks of it):

Edited June 17 by Philalethes
typo

[Newbie]

19 minutes ago, Nilesh said:

I just felt the CME is bit dense . becoming more denser in coming period of time is problematic.   

I’m not so sure Nilesh an earlier post noted that it was diminishing. 
N.

[arjemma]

On 6/17/2023 at 2:08 PM, Newbie said:

In solar physics, helmet streamers are large, loop-like structures that are often observed in the Sun's corona during periods of low to moderate solar activity. They appear as bright, arching structures that extend outward from the Sun's surface, resembling a helmet or a coronal helmet. These streamers are composed of magnetic field lines that are twisted and looped due to the complex magnetic activity occurring on the Sun.

Helmet streamers are associated with the Sun's magnetic field and are typically found in regions where opposite magnetic polarities are in close proximity. The intense magnetic fields within these streamers trap the hot, ionized gas or plasma, forming the bright structures we observe. They are often seen surrounding active regions such as sunspots or coronal holes.

One important aspect of helmet streamers is their connection to the solar wind. The solar wind is a continuous flow of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) that are ejected from the Sun into space. Helmet streamers play a role in the generation of the solar wind by acting as conduits for its release. The solar wind is accelerated along the open magnetic field lines that extend from the tips of the streamers, carrying particles and magnetic energy away from the Sun.
N.

I have read a good paper about this but of what I remember this is a correct explanation. I'm gonna try to find the paper so I can link it to everyone.
I'm planning on studying streamers in the coming week.

[Newbie]

13 hours ago, arjemma said:

I have read a good paper about this but of what I remember this is a correct explanation. I'm gonna try to find the paper so I can link it to everyone.
I'm planning on studying streamers in the coming week.

@arjemma  I look forward to reading the paper you refer to. The latest research paper that I read dealing with structures within coronal mass ejections, particularly streamers was published in 2020. 
Huw Morgan and Anthony C Cook, titled
“The Width, Density and Outflow of Solar Coronal Streamers”.

Part of the abstract: Characterising the large-scale structure and plasma properties of the inner corona is crucial to understanding the source and subsequent expansion of the solar wind and related space weather effects. Here, we apply a new coronal rotational tomography method, along with a method to narrow streamers and refine the density estimate, to COR2A/Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory observations from a period near solar minimum and maximum, gaining density maps for heights between 4 and 8R_⊙. The coronal structure is highly radial at these heights, and the streamers are very narrow: in some regions, only a few degrees in width….

N.

 

Edited June 19 by Newbie

[arjemma]

On 6/19/2023 at 7:10 AM, Newbie said:

@arjemma  I look forward to reading the paper you refer to. The latest research paper that I read dealing with structures within coronal mass ejections, particularly streamers was published in 2020. 
Huw Morgan and Anthony C Cook, titled
“The Width, Density and Outflow of Solar Coronal Streamers”.

Part of the abstract: Characterising the large-scale structure and plasma properties of the inner corona is crucial to understanding the source and subsequent expansion of the solar wind and related space weather effects. Here, we apply a new coronal rotational tomography method, along with a method to narrow streamers and refine the density estimate, to COR2A/Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory observations from a period near solar minimum and maximum, gaining density maps for heights between 4 and 8R_⊙. The coronal structure is highly radial at these heights, and the streamers are very narrow: in some regions, only a few degrees in width….

N.

 

I'm so sorry for the late reply, I have been working on other things so haven't been on much. I'm gonna see if I can find the paper again, I think I have it as a bookmark. 

Interesting paper find, I'm gonna read it. Streamers are really interesting. Sometimes you can see them "break away" on coronagraphs together with CME's.

[Newbie]

6 minutes ago, arjemma said:

I'm so sorry for the late reply, I have been working on other things so haven't been on much. I'm gonna see if I can find the paper again, I think I have it as a bookmark. 

Interesting paper find, I'm gonna read it. Streamers are really interesting. Sometimes you can see them "break away" on coronagraphs together with CME's.

Yes indeed streamers are interesting as are the other structures found within coronal mass ejections.
I was speaking with a researcher whose project was centred on the detection of flux ropes within the interplanetary medium. They found evidence of flux ropes within the solar wind that had travelled all the way out to the Oort Cloud.

Quite incredible!

N.