Seeing The Solar Corona in Three Dimensions

Abstract

The large availability and rich spectral coverage of today’s observational data of the solar corona, and the high spatial and temporal resolution provided by many instruments, has enabled the evolution of three-dimensional (3D) physical models to a great level of detail. However, the 3D information provided by the data is rather limited as every instrument observes from a single angle of vision, or two at the most in the case of the STEREO mission. Two powerful available observational techniques to infer detailed 3D information of the solar corona from empirical data are stereoscopy and tomography. In particular, the technique known as differential emission measure tomography (DEMT) allows determination of the 3D distribution of the coronal electron density and temperature in the inner corona. This paper summarizes the main technical aspects of DEMT, reviews all published work based on it, and comments on its future development and applications.