Characterization of a Low-Latitude Coronal Hole

Lead Investigator:
Barbara Bromage

Team Members:
Craig DeForest, J.T. Hoeksema, Barbara Thompson, Giulio Del Zanna, Xue Pu Zhao

Technical Summary:

As part of the "Whole Sun Month" analysis campaign, we are studying and characterizing the "Elephant's Trunk" coronal hole in its August and September 1996 passages across the disk of the Sun. Some low-latitude coronal holes have appeared to rotate rigidly or at different speeds than the surface does1, begging the question: what, exactly, happens at the boundaries of a low-latitude coronal hole where the surface, presumably, sweeps under the hole? Similarly, one might expect to see heating or other effects due to reconnection at the boundaries of the hole. It is also of interest to know whether the coronal hole really does rotate in a rigid manner; whether it is rotating with the surface; or whether it is evolving along some compromise between those conditions.