Tracking the Evolution of Plasma Instabilities from the Prominence-Corona Transition Region into Interplanetary Space with Total Solar Eclipse and WISPR/PSP White Light Images

TL;DR

This study tracks the evolution of plasma instabilities like vortex rings, KH waves, and CMEs from the solar prominence region into interplanetary space using eclipse and WISPR images, revealing their survivability and dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first empirical evidence that vortex rings originating at the PCTR persist and expand with the solar wind beyond 3 solar radii, using combined eclipse and WISPR observations.

Findings

Vortex rings and KH wave sizes grow more slowly below 1.5 Rs than beyond 3 Rs.

Vortex rings beyond 3 Rs travel at an average speed of ~249 km/s.

Vortex rings do not dissipate as they expand with the solar wind.

Abstract

High-resolution total solar eclipse (TSE) white light (WL) images are the only observations at present to capture coronal structures over an uninterrupted field of view (FoV) of at least 10 solar radii (Rs) starting from the solar limb. They were the first to report the presence of vortex rings originating within the prominence-corona transition region (PCTR). They also captured CMEs and Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instabilities at different phases of their evolution. While the evolution of CMEs and KH waves is relatively well-documented, little is known about the survivability of vortex rings beyond the FoV of the TSE images. In this study, we use seven TSE images and non-contemporaneous WL images acquired by the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar PRobe (WISPR) to track the spatial evolution of vortex rings, KH waves, and CMEs. The size trend versus radial distance for vortex rings and KH waves are found to be shallower below 1.5 Rs than beyond 3 Rs, while the CMEs observed beyond 3 Rs show a unique slope. The WISPR time series yield an average speed of 249.02 +/- 25.3 km/s for the vortex rings beyond 3 Rs, that when combined with their size yields a speed of 19.39 +/- 3.20 km/s below 1 Rs. These values are remarkably consistent with the acceleration profile of the slow solar wind over the same distance. This study provides strong empirical evidence that vortex rings, which originate at the PCTR with complex magnetic structures, do not dissipate as they expand away from the Sun with the solar wind.