3-D reconstruction of active regions with STEREO

We review data analysis and physical modeling related to the 3-D reconstruction of active regions in the solar corona, using stereoscopic image pairs from the STEREO/EUVI instrument. This includes the 3-D geometry of coronal loops (with measurements of the loop inclination plane, coplanarity, circularity, and hydrostaticity), the 3-D electron density and temperature distribution (which enables diagnostics of hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, and heating processes), the 3-D magnetic field (independent of any theoretical model based on photospheric extrapolations), as well as the 3-D reconstruction of CME phenomena, such as EUV dimming, CME acceleration, CME bubble expansion, and associated Lorentz forces that excite MHD kink-mode oscillations in the surroundings of a CME launch site. The mass of CMEs, usually measured from white-light coronagraphs, can be determined independently from the EUV dimming in the CME source region. The detailed 3-D density and temperature structure of an active region can be modeled using the method of instant stereoscopic tomography with orders of magnitude higher spatial resolution than with standard solar-rotation tomography. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.