No Arabic abstract
In order to study the solar corona during eclipses, a new telescope was constructed. Three coronal images were obtained simultaneously from one objective of the telescope as the coronal radiation passed through three polarisers (whose transmission directions were turned through 0^{circ}, 60^{circ}, and 120^{circ} to the chosen direction); one image without polariser was also obtained. The telescope was used to observe the solar corona during the eclipse of 1 August 2008. We obtained distributions of the polarisation brightness, K-corona brightness, degree of the K-corona polarisation and total polarisation degree; polarisation direction depending on the latitude and radius in the plane of the sky was also obtained. We calculated radial distributions of electron density, depending on the latitude. Properties of all these distributions in different coronal structures were compared. We determined temperature of coronal plasma in different coronal structures on the assumption that there is a hydrostatic equilibrium.
The solar corona is a highly-structured plasma which can reach temperatures of more than ~2 MK. At low frequencies (decimetric and metric wavelengths), scattering and refraction of electromagnetic waves are thought to considerably increase the imaged radio source sizes (up to a few arcminutes). However, exactly how source size relates to scattering due to turbulence is still subject to investigation. The theoretical predictions relating source broadening to propagation effects have not been fully confirmed by observations due to the rarity of high spatial resolution observations of the solar corona at low frequencies. Here, the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) was used to observe the solar corona at 120-180 MHz using baselines of up to ~3.5 km (corresponding to a resolution of ~1-2) during the partial solar eclipse of 2015 March 20. A lunar de-occultation technique was used to achieve higher spatial resolution (~0.6) than that attainable via standard interferometric imaging (~2.4). This provides a means of studying the contribution of scattering to apparent source size broadening. It was found that the de-occultation technique reveals a more structured quiet corona that is not resolved from standard imaging, implying scattering may be overestimated in this region when using standard imaging techniques. However, an active region source was measured to be ~4 using both de-occultation and standard imaging. This may be explained by the increased scattering of radio waves by turbulent density fluctuations in active regions, which is more severe than in the quiet Sun.
We report the results of polarimetric observations of the total solar eclipse of 21 August 2017 from Rexburg, Idaho (USA). We use three synchronized DSLR cameras with polarization filters oriented at 0{deg}, 60{deg}, and 120{deg} to provide high-dynamic-range RGB polarization images of the corona and surrounding sky. We measure tangential coronal polarization and vertical sky polarization, both as expected. These observations provide detailed detections of polarization neutral points above and below the eclipsed Sun where the coronal polarization is canceled by the sky polarization. We name these special polarization neutral points after Minnaert and Van de Hulst.
The Moons changeable aspect during a lunar eclipse is largely attributable to variations in the refracted unscattered sunlight absorbed by the terrestrial atmosphere that occur as the satellite crosses the Earths shadow. The contribution to the Moons aspect from sunlight scattered at the Earths terminator is generally deemed minor. However, our analysis of a published spectrum of the 16 August 2008 lunar eclipse shows that diffuse sunlight is a major component of the measured spectrum at wavelengths shorter than 600 nm. The conclusion is supported by two distinct features, namely the spectrums tail at short wavelengths and the unequal absorption by an oxygen collisional complex at two nearby bands. Our findings are consistent with the presence of the volcanic cloud reported at high northern latitudes following the 7-8 August 2008 eruption in Alaska of the Kasatochi volcano. The cloud both attenuates the unscattered sunlight and enhances moderately the scattered component, thus modifying the contrast between the two contributions.
Seven different models are applied to the same problem of simulating the Suns coronal magnetic field during the solar eclipse on 2015 March 20. All of the models are non-potential, allowing for free magnetic energy, but the associated electric currents are developed in significantly different ways. This is not a direct comparison of the coronal modelling techniques, in that the different models also use different photospheric boundary conditions, reflecting the range of approaches currently used in the community. Despite the significant differences, the results show broad agreement in the overall magnetic topology. Among those models with significant volume currents in much of the corona, there is general agreement that the ratio of total to potential magnetic energy should be approximately 1.4. However, there are significant differences in the electric current distributions; while static extrapolations are best able to reproduce active regions, they are unable to recover sheared magnetic fields in filament channels using currently available vector magnetogram data. By contrast, time-evolving simulations can recover the filament channel fields at the expense of not matching the observed vector magnetic fields within active regions. We suggest that, at present, the best approach may be a hybrid model using static extrapolations but with additional energization informed by simplified evolution models. This is demonstrated by one of the models.
Visible coronal structure, in particular the spatial evolution of coronal streamers, provides indirect information about solar magnetic activity and the underlying solar dynamo. Their apparent absence of structure observed during the total eclipses of throughout the Maunder Minimum has been interpreted as evidence of a significant change in the solar magnetic field from that during modern cycles. Eclipse observations available from the more recent Dalton Minimum may be able to provide further information, sunspot activity being between the levels seen during recent cycles and in the Maunder Minimum. Here, we show and examine two graphical records of the total solar eclipse on 1806 June 16, during the Dalton Minimum. These records show significant rays and streamers around an inner ring. The ring is estimated to be ~ 0.44 R_S in width and the streamers in excess of 11.88 R_S in length. In combination with records of spicules or prominences, these eclipse records visually contrast the Dalton Minimum with the Maunder Minimum in terms of their coronal structure and support the existing discussions based on the sunspot observations. These eclipse records are broadly consistent with the solar cycle phase in the modelled open solar flux and the reconstructed slow solar wind at most latitudes.