SHINE: Separating the Dynamic and Quiescent Corona: A New Tool for the Detection and Analysis of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)

随着日冕物质抛射（CME）和背景日冕的扰动在日球层传播和扩展，该团队将研究磁场和等离子体的动态重构。在这项研究中，首席研究员（PI）将利用最近开发的一项技术，首次在天基和地面日冕仪图像中以精细分辨率从背景日冕中分离出CME信号。通过清晰地将日冕抛射干扰与周围的日冕等离子体结构分开，PI团队希望确定日冕磁场和日球等离子体对这种干扰的响应。使用这种新方法，PI将大大提高CME事件的检测和分类，从大型CME到仪器噪声水平的微弱等离子体斑点，使CME的统计研究更加详细。他还将能够创建一个太阳周期内日冕的三维等离子体密度图，这些图将对日冕建模、解释日球等离子体观测以及直接研究日冕高度及其时间演变非常有用。对日冕物质抛射的开始和传播的研究将增加我们对天体物理冲击发展和传播的基本特性的理解，并使我们能够开发预测工具，以预测日冕物质抛射干扰何时可能对地球空间环境产生重大影响。PI的在线日冕物质抛射数据库将向公众开放，其中有专门的部分用于向非科学家解释日冕物质抛射的性质及其对地球的潜在影响。在这里开发的CME分离和检测技术将对更广泛的图像处理社区有用。

The team will investigate the dynamic restructuring of the magnetic field and plasma within coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and background solar corona, as CME disturbances propagate and expand through the heliosphere. In this study, the Principal Investigator (PI) will exploit a recently developed technique which enables, for the first time, the isolation of a CME signal from the background corona in space-based and ground-based coronagraph images at fine resolution. By clearly separating the CME disturbance from ambient coronal plasma structures, the PI's team expects to determine the response of the coronal magnetic field and heliospheric plasma to such disturbances. Using this new method, the PI will greatly improve the detection and classification of CME events, from large CMEs down to faint plasma blobs at the level of instrumental noise, enabling a more detailed statistical study of CMEs. He will also be able to create 3D plasma density maps of the corona over a solar cycle, and such maps will be extremely useful for coronal modeling, for interpreting heliospheric plasma observations, and for direct study of the height of the corona and its temporal evolution.This investigation of the initiation and propagation of CMEs will increase our understanding of the fundamental properties of astrophysical shock development and propagation in general, and enable the development of predictive tools for when CME disturbances could have a significant impact on the Earth's space environment. The PI's online CME database will be made accessible to the public, with special sections designed for explaining to non-scientists the nature of CMEs and their potential impact on the Earth. The techniques developed here for CME separation and detection will be useful to the wider image processing community.