The Thomson surface. III. Tracking features in 3D

Abstract

In this, the final installment in a three-part series on the Thomson surface, we present simulated observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by a hypothetical polarizing white light heliospheric imager. Thomson scattering yields a polarization signal that can be exploited to locate observed features in three dimensions relative to the Thomson surface. We consider how the appearance of the CME changes with the direction of trajectory, using simulations of a simple geometrical shape and also of a more realistic CME generated using the ENLIL model. We compare the appearance in both unpolarized B and polarized pB light, and show that there is a quantifiable difference in the measured brightness of a CME between unpolarized and polarized observations. We demonstrate a technique for using this difference to extract the three-dimensional (3D) trajectory of large objects such as CMEs. We conclude with a discussion on how a polarizing heliospheric imager could be used to extract 3D trajectory information about CMEs or other observed features. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.