Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) and interplanetary scintillation (IPS) 3D-reconstructions of the inner heliosphere

Adv. in Geosciences: Solar Terrestrial 21, 339-366 (in press)
Proc. AOGS, 2009

M. Duldig (ed.)
© World Scientific Publ. Co.

Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) and interplanetary scintillation (IPS) 3D-reconstructions of the inner heliosphere

B.V. Jackson, P.P. Hick, A. Buffington, M.M. Bisi, J.M. Clover
Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Univ. of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

M. Tokumaru
Solar-Terrestrial Environment Lab., Nagoya Univ., Nagoya, Japan

Abstract

The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) direct white-light data as well as higher-level data products are available on our UCSD Website at http://smei.ucsd.edu/ from first light in early February 2003 to nearly the present day. These analyses provide densities in the inner heliosphere, show many familiar CMEs in three dimensions (3D) during this interval, and provide animations and individual images of them. This 3D analysis is enhanced by use of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) velocity observations to help provide the overall form of the structures reconstructed. Our timedependent 3D reconstruction technique is discussed, and the different ways we test and validate these 3D results. These checks include both internal consistency checks, and comparisons with in situ measurements at various near-Earth spacecraft, at Ulysses, at the STEREO spacecraft, and from magnetic field data at Mars.