Solar Total Eclipse of 21 August 2017: Study of the Inner Corona Dynamical Events Leading to a CME

Abstract

Total solar eclipse (TSE) coronal large and small scale events were reported in the historical literature but a definite synoptic coverage was missing for studying a relationship with the more general magnetic context of the solar-disk. We here analyze temporal changes in the solar corona before, during, and after the total solar eclipse on 21 August 2017 from a set of ground-based and of space-borne observations. High-quality ground-based white-light (W-L) observations and a deep image processing allow us to reveal these changes for the first time with a fraction of a one-minute time resolution. Displacements of a number of fine coronal features were measured for the first time at these small radial distances, using a diffraction limited instrument at a single site. The comparison with space-based observations, including observations from the {\it Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory} (STEREO) mission, showed that the features belong to a slow coronal mass ejection (CME) propagating through the corona with the nearly constant speed of 250 km/s. Our TSE images provide the same typical velocity as measured at a distance of one solar radius from the surface. The event was initiated by coronal dynamics manifested by a prominence eruption that started just before the eclipse observations and an ascent of a U-shaped structure visible in the AIA 171 A channel, which we assume as the lower part of a coronal cavity. The prominence material was observed draining down towards the chromosphere along the prominence arch. While the prominence disappears in the STEREO-A field-of-view at the height of about 6$^{\prime}$ above the limb, the corresponding flux rope seems to continue towards the outer corona and produces the slow CME with turbulent motion. The overall mass of the moving features is evaluated based on absolute photometrical data extracted from our best W-L eclipse image.