arXiv subjects

Roberto Susino

Publications and source records attributed to Roberto Susino.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

PRICM3: A novel Polarization Ratio framework for three-dimensional CME reconstruction

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are inherently three-dimensional (3D), but traditional white-light coronagraphs provide only two-dimensional (2D) projections. While the Polarization Ratio Technique (PRT) utilizes Thomson scattering to infer proxy 3D plasma locations, its results are typically limited to 2D topographical maps, hindering geometric interpretation. To address this, we introduce PRICM3 (Polarization Ratio Integrated CME Mapper in 3D), a framework that converts PRT-derived maps into explicit 3D point-cloud reconstructions. This tool enables intuitive visualization, multi-viewpoint comparison, and direct validation against geometric models such as the Graduated Cylindrical Shell (GCS). As a proof-of-concept, we analyzed a limb CME observed on 28 October 2021 using data from Solar Orbiter/Metis, SOHO/LASCO, and STEREO-A/COR2. The independent reconstructions converged into a consistent 3D volume that aligned remarkably well with the corresponding GCS geometry. These results prove that the 3D information embedded in PRT topographical maps can be successfully recovered through spatial reconstruction. PRICM3 offers a powerful, intuitive method for interpreting polarimetric coronagraph observations, providing a vital tool for current and future solar missions such as Proba-3/ASPIICS and PUNCH.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Investigating Solar Wind Outflows from Open-Closed Magnetic Field Structures Using Coordinated Solar Orbiter and Hinode Observations

ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter (SO) allows us to study the solar corona at closer distances and from different perspectives, which helps us to gain significant insights into the origins of the solar wind. In this work, we present the analysis of solar wind outflows from two locations: a narrow open-field corridor and a small, mid-latitude coronal hole. These outflows were observed off-limb by the Metis coronagraph onboard SO and on-disk by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) onboard Hinode. Magnetic field extrapolations suggest that the upflow regions seen in EIS were the sources of the outflowing solar wind observed with Metis. We find that the plasma associated with the narrow open-field corridor has higher electron densities and lower outflow velocities compared to the coronal hole plasma in the middle corona, even though the plasma properties of the two source regions in the low corona are found to be relatively similar. The speed of solar wind from the open-field corridor also shows no correlation with the magnetic field expansion factor, unlike the coronal hole. These pronounced differences at higher altitudes may arise from the dynamic nature of the low-middle corona, in which reconnection can readily occur and may play an important role in driving solar wind variability.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Forecasting Geoffective Events from Solar Wind Data and Evaluating the Most Predictive Features through Machine Learning Approaches

This study addresses the prediction of geomagnetic disturbances by exploiting machine learning techniques. Specifically, the Long-Short Term Memory recurrent neural network, which is particularly suited for application over long time series, is employed in the analysis of in-situ measurements of solar wind plasma and magnetic field acquired over more than one solar cycle, from $2005$ to $2019$, at the Lagrangian point L$1$. The problem is approached as a binary classification aiming to predict one hour in advance a decrease in the SYM-H geomagnetic activity index below the threshold of $-50$ nT, which is generally regarded as indicative of magnetospheric perturbations. The strong class imbalance issue is tackled by using an appropriate loss function tailored to optimize appropriate skill scores in the training phase of the neural network. Beside classical skill scores, value-weighted skill scores are then employed to evaluate predictions, suitable in the study of problems, such as the one faced here, characterized by strong temporal variability. For the first time, the content of magnetic helicity and energy carried by solar transients, associated with their detection and likelihood of geo-effectiveness, were considered as input features of the network architecture. Their predictive capabilities are demonstrated through a correlation-driven feature selection method to rank the most relevant characteristics involved in the neural network prediction model. The optimal performance of the adopted neural network in properly forecasting the onset of geomagnetic storms, which is a crucial point for giving real warnings in an operational setting, is finally showed.

physics.space-ph↗

arXiv2023

Particle monitoring capability of the Solar Orbiter Metis coronagraph through the increasing phase of solar cycle 25

Context. Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar particles with energies greater than tens of MeV penetrate spacecraft and instruments hosted aboard space missions. The Solar Orbiter Metis coronagraph is aimed at observing the solar corona in both visible (VL) and ultraviolet (UV) light. Particle tracks are observed in the Metis images of the corona. An algorithm has been implemented in the Metis processing electronics to detect the VL image pixels crossed by cosmic rays. This algorithm was initially enabled for the VL instrument only, since the process of separating the particle tracks in the UV images has proven to be very challenging. Aims. We study the impact of the overall bulk of particles of galactic and solar origin on the Metis coronagraph images. We discuss the effects of the increasing solar activity after the Solar Orbiter mission launch on the secondary particle production in the spacecraft. Methods. We compared Monte Carlo simulations of GCRs crossing or interacting in the Metis VL CMOS sensor to observations gathered in 2020 and 2022. We also evaluated the impact of solar energetic particle events of different intensities on the Metis images. Results. The study of the role of abundant and rare cosmic rays in firing pixels in the Metis VL images of the corona allows us to estimate the efficiency of the algorithm applied for cosmic-ray track removal from the images and to demonstrate that the instrument performance had remained unchanged during the first two years of the Solar Orbiter operations. The outcome of this work can be used to estimate the Solar Orbiter instrument's deep charging and the order of magnitude for energetic particles crossing the images of Metis and other instruments such as STIX and EUI.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Coronal Heating Rate in the Slow Solar Wind

This Letter reports the first observational estimate of the heating rate in the slowly expanding solar corona. The analysis exploits the simultaneous remote and local observations of the same coronal plasma volume with the Solar Orbiter/Metis and the Parker Solar Probe instruments, respectively, and relies on the basic solar wind magnetohydrodynamic equations. As expected, energy losses are a minor fraction of the solar wind energy flux, since most of the energy dissipation that feeds the heating and acceleration of the coronal flow occurs much closer to the Sun than the heights probed in the present study, which range from 6.3 to 13.3 solar radii. The energy deposited to the supersonic wind is then used to explain the observed slight residual wind acceleration and to maintain the plasma in a non-adiabatic state. As derived in the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin limit, the present energy transfer rate estimates provide a lower limit, which can be very useful in refining the turbulence-based modeling of coronal heating and subsequent solar wind acceleration.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Physics-driven machine learning for the prediction of coronal mass ejections' travel times

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) correspond to dramatic expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the solar corona into the heliosphere. CMEs are scientifically relevant because they are involved in the physical mechanisms characterizing the active Sun. However, more recently CMEs have attracted attention for their impact on space weather, as they are correlated to geomagnetic storms and may induce the generation of Solar Energetic Particles streams. In this space weather framework, the present paper introduces a physics-driven artificial intelligence (AI) approach to the prediction of CMEs travel time, in which the deterministic drag-based model is exploited to improve the training phase of a cascade of two neural networks fed with both remote sensing and in-situ data. This study shows that the use of physical information in the AI architecture significantly improves both the accuracy and the robustness of the travel time prediction.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2023

Does Turbulence along the Coronal Current Sheet Drive Ion Cyclotron Waves?

Evidence for the presence of ion cyclotron waves, driven by turbulence, at the boundaries of the current sheet is reported in this paper. By exploiting the full potential of the joint observations performed by Parker Solar Probe and the Metis coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter, local measurements of the solar wind can be linked with the large-scale structures of the solar corona. The results suggest that the dynamics of the current sheet layers generates turbulence, which in turn creates a sufficiently strong temperature anisotropy to make the solar-wind plasma unstable to anisotropy-driven instabilities such as the Alfvén ion-cyclotron, mirror-mode, and firehose instabilities. The study of the polarization state of high-frequency magnetic fluctuations reveals that ion cyclotron waves are indeed present along the current sheet, thus linking the magnetic topology of the remotely imaged coronal source regions with the wave bursts observed in situ. The present results may allow improvement of state-of-the-art models based on the ion cyclotron mechanism, providing new insights into the processes involved in coronal heating.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

Connecting Solar Orbiter remote-sensing observations and Parker Solar Probe in-situ measurements with a numerical MHD reconstruction of the Parker spiral

As a key feature, NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and ESA-NASA's Solar Orbiter (SO) missions cooperate to trace solar wind and transients from their sources on the Sun to the inner interplanetary space. The goal of this work is to accurately reconstruct the interplanetary Parker spiral and the connection between coronal features observed remotely by the Metis coronagraph on-board SO and those detected in situ by PSP at the time of the first PSP-SO quadrature of January 2021. We use the Reverse In-situ and MHD Approach (RIMAP), a hybrid analytical-numerical method performing data-driven reconstructions of the Parker spiral. RIMAP solves the MHD equations on the equatorial plane with the PLUTO code, using the measurements collected by PSP between 0.1 and 0.2 AU as boundary conditions. Our reconstruction connects density and wind speed measurements provided by Metis (3-6 solar radii) to those acquired by PSP (21.5 solar radii) along a single streamline. The capability of our MHD model to connect the inner corona observed by Metis and the super Alfvénic wind measured by PSP, not only confirms the research pathways provided by multi-spacecraft observations, but also the validity and accuracy of RIMAP reconstructions as a possible test bench to verify models of transient phenomena propagating across the heliosphere, such as coronal mass ejections, solar energetic particles and solar wind switchbacks.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

Observation of Magnetic Switchback in the Solar Corona

Switchbacks are sudden, large radial deflections of the solar wind magnetic field, widely revealed in interplanetary space by the Parker Solar Probe. The switchbacks' formation mechanism and sources are still unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfvénic turbulence, shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, interchange reconnection, and geometrical effects related to the Parker spiral. This Letter presents observations from the Metis coronagraph onboard Solar Orbiter of a single large propagating S-shaped vortex, interpreted as first evidence of a switchback in the solar corona. It originated above an active region with the related loop system bounded by open-field regions to the East and West. Observations, modeling, and theory provide strong arguments in favor of the interchange reconnection origin of switchbacks. Metis measurements suggest that the initiation of the switchback may also be an indicator of the origin of slow solar wind.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

Sky Brightness evaluation at Concordia Station - Dome C, Antarctica for ground-based observations of the Solar Corona

The evaluation of sky characteristics plays a fundamental role for many astrophysical experiments and ground-based observations. In solar physics, the main requirement for such observations is a very low sky brightness value, that is, less than one-millionth of the solar disk brightness. Few places match such requirement for ground-based, out-of-eclipse coronagraphic measurements. A candidate coronagraphic site is the Dome C plateau in Antarctica. In this paper, we show the first results of the sky brightness measurements at Dome C with the Extreme Solar Coronagraphy Antarctic Program Experiment (ESCAPE) at Italian-French Concordia Station, on Dome C, Antarctica (3300 m) during the summer XXXIV and XXXV Expeditions of the "Italian Piano Nazionale Ricerche Antartiche" (PNRA). The sky brightness measurements were carried out with the internally-occulted Antarctic coronagraph - AntarctiCor. In optimal atmospheric conditions, the sky brightness of Dome C has reached values of the order of 1.0 to 0.7 millionth of of the solar disk brightness.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

Exploring the Solar Wind from its Source on the Corona into the Inner Heliosphere during the First Solar Orbiter - Parker Solar Probe Quadrature

This Letter addresses the first Solar Orbiter (SO) -- Parker Solar Probe (PSP) quadrature, occurring on January 18, 2021, to investigate the evolution of solar wind from the extended corona to the inner heliosphere. Assuming ballistic propagation, the same plasma volume observed remotely in corona at altitudes between 3.5 and 6.3 solar radii above the solar limb with the Metis coronagraph on SO can be tracked to PSP, orbiting at 0.1 au, thus allowing the local properties of the solar wind to be linked to the coronal source region from where it originated. Thanks to the close approach of PSP to the Sun and the simultaneous Metis observation of the solar corona, the flow-aligned magnetic field and the bulk kinetic energy flux density can be empirically inferred along the coronal current sheet with an unprecedented accuracy, allowing in particular estimation of the Alfvén radius at 8.7 solar radii during the time of this event. This is thus the very first study of the same solar wind plasma as it expands from the sub-Alfvénic solar corona to just above the Alfvén surface.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2020

On the Possibilities of Detecting Helium D$_3$ Line Polarization with Metis

Space coronagraph Metis on board of the Solar Orbiter offers us new capabilities for studying eruptive prominences and coronal mass ejections (CME). Its two spectral channels, hydrogen L$α$ and visible-light (VL) will provide, for the first time, co-aligned and co-temporal images to study dynamics and plasma properties of CMEs. Moreover, with the VL channel (580 - 640 nm) we find an exciting possibility to detect the helium D$_3$ line (587.73 nm) and its linear polarization. The aim of this study is to predict the diagnostics potential of this line regarding the CME thermal and magnetic structure. For a grid of models we first compute the intensity of the D$_3$ line together with VL continuum intensity due to Thomson scattering on core electrons. We show that the Metis VL channel will detect a mixture of both, with predominance of the helium emission at intermediate temperatures between 30 - 50,000 K. Then we use the code HAZEL to compute the degree of linear polarization detectable in the VL channel. This is a mixture of D$_3$ scattering polarization and continuum polarization. The former one is lowered in the presence of a magnetic field and the polarization axis is rotated (Hanle effect). Metis has the capability of measuring $Q/I$ and $U/I$ polarization degrees and we show their dependence on temperature and magnetic field. At $T$=30,000 K we find a significant lowering of $Q/I$ which is due to strongly enhanced D$_3$ line emission, while depolarization at 10 G amounts roughly to 10 \%.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Metis: the Solar Orbiter visible light and ultraviolet coronal imager

Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona from 1.7 $R_\odot$ to about 9 $R_\odot$. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close vantage point (down to 0.28 AU), achieving out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, will allow longer-term studies of the coronal features. Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H I Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm. The coronal images in both the UV Lyman-α and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 second can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light. The Metis measurements will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes acceleration and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections take place, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Measuring coronal magnetic fields with remote sensing observations of shock waves

Recent works demonstrated that remote sensing observations of shock waves propagating into the corona and associated with major solar eruptions can be used to derive the strength of coronal magnetic fields met by the shock over a very large interval of heliocentric distances and latitudes. This opinion article will summarize most recent results obtained on this topic and will discuss the weaknesses and strengths of these techniques to open a constructive discussion with the scientific community.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

3D stereoscopic analysis of a Coronal Mass Ejection and comparison with UV spectroscopic data

A three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the 2007, May 20 partial-halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) has been made using STEREO/EUVI and STEREO/COR1 coronagraphic images. The trajectory and kinematics of the erupting filament have been derived from EUVI image pairs with the "tie-pointing" triangulation technique, while the polarization ratio technique has been applied to COR1 data to determine the average position and depth of the CME front along the line of sight. These 3D geometrical information have been combined for the first time with spectroscopic measurements of the OVI $λλ$1031.91, 1037.61 Å line profiles made with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) on board SOHO. Comparison between the prominence trajectory extrapolated at the altitude of UVCS observations and the core transit time measured from UVCS data made possible a firm identification of the CME core observed in white light and UV with the prominence plasma expelled during the CME. Results on the 3D structure of the CME front have been used to calculate synthetic spectral profiles of the OVI $λ\lambda1031.91$ Å line expected along the UVCS slit, in an attempt to reproduce the measured line widths. Observed line widths can be reproduced within the uncertainties only in the peripheral part of the CME front; at the front center, where the distance of the emitting plasma from the plane of the sky is greater, synthetic widths turn out to be $\sim 25$% lower than the measured ones. This provides strong evidence of line broadening due to plasma heating mechanisms in addition to bulk expansion of the emitting volume.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Plasma heating in a post eruption Current Sheet: a case study based on ultraviolet, soft, and hard X-ray data

Off-limb observations of the solar corona after Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) often show strong, compact, and persistent UV sources behind the eruption. They are primarily observed by the SOHO/UVCS instrument in the "hot" Fe XVIII λ974 Å line and are usually interpreted as a signature of plasma heating due to magnetic reconnection in the post-CME Current Sheet (CS). Nevertheless, the physical process itself and the altitude of the main energy release are currently not fully understood. In this work, we studied the evolution of plasma heating after the CME of 2004 July 28 by comparing UV spectra acquired by UVCS with soft X-ray (SXR) and hard X-ray (HXR)images of the post-flare loops taken by GOES/SXI and RHESSI. The X-ray data show a long-lasting extended source that is rising upwards, toward the high-temperature source detected by UVCS. UVCS data show the presence of significant non-thermal broadening in the CS (signature of turbulent motions) and a strong density gradient across the CS region. The thermal energy released in the HXR source is on the order of about 10^32 erg, a factor about 2-5 larger than the energy required to explain the high-temperature plasma sampled by UVCS. Nevertheless, the very different time evolutions of SXR and HXR sources compared to the UV emission suggest that reconnection occurring above the post-eruption arcades are not directly responsible for the high-temperature plasma sampled higher up by UVCS. We conclude that an additional plasma heating mechanism (such as turbulent reconnection) in the CS is likely required.

astro-ph.SR↗