Heliospheric tomography: an algorithm for the reconstruction of the 3D solar wind from remote sensing observations

Proc. SPIE 5171, 287−297, 2004

Telescopes and Instrumentation for Solar Astrophysics,
S. Fineschi, M.A. Gummin (eds.)
© SPIE − The International Society for Optical Engineering

Heliospheric tomography: an algorithm for the reconstruction of the 3D solar wind from remote sensing observations

P.P. Hick and B.V. Jackson
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California San Diego

Abstract

Over the past years we have developed a tomographic technique for using heliospheric remote sensing observations (i.e. interplanetary scintillation and Thomson scattering data) for the reconstruction of the three-dimensional solar wind density and velocity in the inner heliosphere. We describe the basic algorithm on which our technique is based. To highlight the details of the reconstruction algorithm we specifically emphasize the implementation of corotating tomography using IPS g-level and IPS velocity observations as proxies for the solar wind density and velocity, respectively. We provide some insight into the modifications required to expand the technique into a fully time-dependent tomography, and to use Thomson scattering brightness (instead of g-level) as a proxy for the solar wind density