Aims. Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission and is 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 in a square field of view (FoV) of ±2.9 • in width, with an inner circular FoV at 1.6 • , thus spanning the solar atmosphere from 1.7 R to about 9 R , owing to the eccentricity of the spacecraft orbit. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close (0.28 AU, at the closest perihelion) vantage point, achieving increasing 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, allow longer-term studies of the off-limb coronal features, thus finally disentangling their intrinsic evolution from effects due to solar rotation. Methods. 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 visible light channel also includes a broadband polarimeter able to observe the linearly polarised component of the K corona. The coronal images in both the UV H i 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. Results. The Metis measurements, obtained from different latitudes, 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 the acceleration process and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) take place. The near-Sun multi-wavelength coronal imaging performed with Metis, combined with the unique opportunities offered by the Solar Orbiter mission, can effectively address crucial issues of solar physics such as: the origin and heating/acceleration of the fast and slow solar wind streams; the origin, acceleration, and transport of the solar energetic particles; and the transient ejection of coronal mass and its evolution in the inner heliosphere, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere and of the processes generating and driving the solar wind and coronal mass ejections. Conclusions. This paper presents the scientific objectives and requirements, the overall optical design of the Metis instrument, t...

We investigated the capability of mapping the solar wind outflow velocity of neutral hydrogen atoms by using synergistic visible-light and ultraviolet observations. We used polarised brightness images acquired by the LASCO/SOHO and Mk3/MLSO coronagraphs, and synoptic Lyα line observations of the UVCS/SOHO spectrometer to obtain daily maps of solar wind H I outflow velocity between 1.5 and 4.0 R⊙ on the SOHO plane of the sky during a complete solar rotation (from 1997 June 1 to 1997 June 28). The 28-days data sequence allows us to construct coronal off-limb Carrington maps of the resulting velocities at different heliocentric distances to investigate the space and time evolution of the outflowing solar plasma. In addition, we performed a parameter space exploration in order to study the dependence of the derived outflow velocities on the physical quantities characterising the Lyα emitting process in the corona. Our results are important in anticipation of the future science with the Metis instrument, selected to be part of the Solar Orbiter scientific payload. It was conceived to carry out near-sun coronagraphy, performing for the first time simultaneous imaging in polarised visible-light and ultraviolet H I Lyα line, so providing an unprecedented view of the solar wind acceleration region in the inner corona.

The present work studies the characteristics of an equatorial streamer visible above the east limb of the Sun on March 2008, during the most recent minimum of solar activity. We analysed the visible light coronagraphic images of SOHO/LASCO and the ultraviolet observations in the H I Lyα spectral line obtained by SOHO/UVCS, and exploited the Doppler dimming effect of the coronal Lyα line to derive the outflow velocity profile of the scattering neutral hydrogen atoms in the streamer region. Taking advantage of the synergy between visible light and ultraviolet observations, we were able to determine all the properties of the coronal structure. In particular, the actual extent of the streamer along the line of sight has been evaluated for the first time. In so doing, the solar wind outflow velocity turned out to be the only free parameter in the theoretical modelling of the Lyα intensity. We found nearly static conditions below 3.5 R along the streamer axis, whereas the solar wind flows at velocities from 40 km s −1 to 140 km s −1 in the altitude range 2.5-5.0 R along the southern boundary of the streamer. We also derived the intensity distribution of the F coronal component in the LASCO C2 field of view, by combining total and polarized brightness data. Finally, we investigated the dependence of the Lyα resonant scattering process on the kinetic temperature of the coronal neutral hydrogen atoms and found that the value of this temperature mostly affects the scattering process at low heliocentric distances, where the solar wind flows with low velocity.

In this work we study the kinematics of three small-scale (0.01 R ) blobs of chromospheric plasma falling back to the Sun after the huge eruptive event of June 7, 2011. From a study of 3D trajectories of blobs made with the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) data, we demonstrate the existence of a significant drag force acting on the blobs and calculate two drag coefficients, in the radial and tangential directions. The resulting drag coefficients C D are between 0 and 5, comparable in the two directions, making the drag force only a factor of 0.45-0.75 smaller than the gravitational force. To obtain a correct determination of electron densities in the blobs, we also demonstrate how, by combining measurements of total and polarized brightness, the Hα contribution to the white-light emission observed by the COR1 telescopes can be estimated. This component is significant for chromospheric plasma, being between 95 and 98% of the total white-light emission. Moreover, we demonstrate that the COR1 data can be employed even to estimate the Hα polarized component, which turns out to be in the order of a few percent of Hα total emission from the blobs. If the drag forces acting on small-scale blobs reported here are similar to those that play a role during the CME propagation, our results suggest that the magnetic drag should be considered even in the CME initiation modelling.

Context. Synergistic visible light and ultraviolet coronagraphic observations are essential to investigate the link of the Sun to the inner heliosphere through the study of the dynamic properties of the solar wind. Aims. We perform spectroscopic mapping of the outer solar corona to constitute a statistically significant database of neutral hydrogen coronal temperatures, which is suitable for overcoming the lack of spectrometric information in observations performed by coronagraphs that are solely equipped for visible light and ultraviolet imaging; these include the forthcoming Metis instrument on board Solar Orbiter. Methods. We systematically analysed neutral hydrogen Lyα line data that was obtained by UVCS/SOHO observations of the extended solar corona relevant to a lot of polar, mid-latitude and equatorial structures at different phases of solar activity, and collected far longer than a whole solar cycle (1996−2012). Results. We created a database consisting in both the neutral hydrogen temperature components, which are perpendicular and parallel to the radially symmetric coronal magnetic field lines, as a function of the heliocentric distance and polar angle and for different phases of the solar activity cycle. We validated the reliability of the constituted neutral hydrogen temperature database, investigating a new set of UVCS Lyα data with the Doppler dimming technique. The solar wind outflow velocities obtained by adopting both the neutral hydrogen temperature distribution directly derived from the observed Lyα profiles and those taken from our database well agree within the uncertainties.