Stereoscopic polar plume reconstructions from STEREO/SECCHI images

We present stereoscopic reconstructions of the location and inclination of polar plumes of two data sets based on the two simultaneously recorded images taken by the EUVI telescopes in the SECCHI instrument package onboard the STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft. The ten plumes investigated show a superradial expansion in the coronal hole in 3D which is consistent with the 2D results. Their deviations from the local meridian planes are rather small with an average of 6.47◦. By comparing the reconstructed plumes with a dipole field with its axis along the solar rotation axis, it is found that plumes are inclined more horizontally than the dipole field. The lower the latitude is, the larger is the deviation from the dipole field. The relationship between plumes and bright points has been investigated and they are not always associated. For the first data set, based on the 3D height of plumes and the electron density derived from SUMER/SOHO Si viii line pair, we found that electron densities along the plumes decrease with height above the solar surface. The temperature obtained from the density scale height is 1.6 to 1.8 times larger than the temperature obtained from Mg ix line ratios. We attribute this discrepancy to a deviation of the electron and the ion temperatures. Finally, we have found that the outflow speeds studied in the O vi line in the plumes corrected by the angle between the line of sight and the plume orientation are quite small with a maximum of 10 km s−1. It is unlikely that plumes are a dominant contributor to the fast solar wind. Subject headings: solar corona, plume, stereoscopy Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Str.2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008 Nanjing, China Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7660, 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington D.C., USA, 20375 Solar and Astrophysics Lab., Lockheed Martin ATC, 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ar X iv :0 90 8. 23 65 v1 [ as tr oph .S R ] 1 7 A ug 2 00 9