Reconstructing the 3D Solar Wind Speed in the Middle Corona with SOLO/Metis

ALBERTO M. VASQUEZ; FEDERICO A. NUEVO; FEDERICA FRASSATI; ALESSANDRO BEMPORAD; RICHARD A. FRAZIN; MARCO ROMOLI; NISHTHA SACHDEVA; WARD B. MANCHESTER IV

Monterrey

Conferencia; XIV COLAGE; 2024

ALAGE

Determination of the three-dimensional (3D) thermodynamic structure of the solar corona by observational means is key to advance our understanding of the physical processes responsible of the heating and acceleration of the solar wind. Towards this end, solar rotational tomography uses time series of White Light (WL) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images of the solar corona to determine the 3D distribution of the electron density and temperature of the solar corona. The recently operational Metis space coronagraph, on board the Solar Orbiter mission, records both Lyman-alpha and WL images of the solar corona. Based on images from these spectral ranges, tomography allows construction of 3D maps of the Lyman-alpha Doppler dimming factor which, in combination with global models of the coronal magnetic field, allows derivation of 3D maps of the solar wind velocity field. We describe the technique and show preliminary results based on simulations.