Combining Images from PSP/WISPR, SolO/SoloHI and 1 AU to Track Small Scale Features within Coronal Mass Ejections

Authors: Phillip Hess (NRL)

In past observations of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) taken near 1 AU, there were strict observational limits to the structural CME features that could be resolved within a CME. Furthermore, because the scale size of the CME was so small compared to the observing distance, assumptions about the distribution of features within the overall CME volume could be used to track the kinematics of these features without introducing a significant error. However, as the unique orbits of Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter have provided close up imaging, it is clear that these CME are interiors are highly structured in a complex manner. While these new images have provided an unprecedented ability to track smaller features out into the heliosphere, they have also revealed the difficulty of accurately determining the location of bright features along a given line up sight, and thus a difficulty in determining the physical location of the feature in general. Comparing and combining observations from multiple perspectives can greatly reduce this ambiguity and provide reliable kinematics, but only to the degree that individual features can be reliably identified in each individual data set. We demonstrate attempts to using these multi-viewpoint events to resolve this inherent ambiguity and present reliable geometric and kinematic information various CME features.