Images Of Corona Research Articles

Impact Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Karez in Turpan Basin of China

Karez systems are ancient hydraulic works that use underground waterways to divert water by gravity and have historically been popular in arid regions across Central Asia. Karez systems have undergone thousands of years of development and have been used for irrigation in 40 countries and regions worldwide. Although there are different opinions about the origin of karezes, the role and significance of karezes are similar. The Turpan Basin is a relatively closed inland basin in China, far from the ocean, with a very dry climate and high evaporation rates. However, due to the ice and snow meltwater of the Tianshan Mountains, the groundwater resources in the basin are abundant. Karezes are an important support for Turpan’s farming civilization and tourism culture and represent a great masterpiece of how people in arid areas have used the natural environment. This study used historical CORONA images to visually interpret the karez system in the 1970s and compared it with the karez system in 2020 to analyze the spatial distribution variation characteristics of the karezes. The impact of land use/land cover change on the karezes was also analyzed. The results showed that from 1970 to 2020, as the population grew, there was an increase in arable land and built-up areas while the water area decreased. In general, the increase in arable land and built-up areas, the decrease in water area, and the increase in the number of electromechanical wells have combined to reduce the number of karez systems. Based on the CORONA image from 1970, it is possible to visualize the shaft area that existed in 1970 but did not exist in 2020. Some karez shafts that existed in bare terrain areas in 1970 were truncated when the land use/land cover type changed to arable land. The area where the disappeared karez shafts were located is approximately 87.77 square kilometers. Through the study of the changes in the spatial distribution of karezes and the impact of land use/land cover change on karezes, this research provides a valuable reference for the construction of karez conservation areas or urban planning. The investigation of the distribution of historical karezes is of great significance for studying the changes in karezes and excavating the historical and cultural value of karezes.

In-flight validation of the Metis visible-light polarimeter coronagraph on board Solar Orbiter

Context. The Metis coronagraph is one of the remote sensing instruments of the ESA-NASA Solar Orbiter mission. The goal for the instrument is to enable the study of the solar atmosphere and solar wind by simultaneously acquiring images of the solar corona at two different wavelengths: visible light (VL), within a band ranging from 580 nm to 640 nm, and ultraviolet light, in the HI Lyα 121.6 ± 10 nm. The visible-light channel of the coronagraph includes a polarimeter with electro-optically modulating liquid crystal variable retarders to measure the linearly polarized brightness of the K-corona and derive the electron density. Aims. In this paper, we present the first in-flight validation results of the Metis polarimetric channel together with a comparison to the on-ground calibrations. This paper seeks to validate the first use of an electro-optical device, the liquid crystal-based polarimeter, in deep space and within a hard radiation environment. Methods. We used the orientation of the K-corona’s linear polarization vector during the roll maneuvers of the Space Orbiter spacecraft for the in-flight calibration. Results. The Metis coronagraph on board the Solar Orbiter shows good agreement with the on-ground measurements. The in-flight validation confirms the expected performance of the visible-light channel polarimeter. Furthermore, a comparison between the first polarized brightness value obtained by Metis and the polarized brightness values obtained by the space-based coronagraph LASCO and the ground-based coronagraph K-Cor shows the consistency of the Metis calibrated results.

Role of the Protein Corona in the Colloidal Behavior of Microplastics.

Microparticles of polyethylene and polypropylene are largely found in aquatic environments because they are the most produced and persistent plastic materials. Once in biological media, they are covered by a layer of molecules, the so-called corona, mostly composed of proteins. A yeast protein extract from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a protein system to observe interactions in complex biological media. Proteins, acting as surfactants and providing hydrophilic surfaces, allow the dispersion of highly hydrophobic particles in water and stabilize them. After 24 h, the microplastic quantity was up to 1 × 1011 particles per liter, whereas without protein, no particles remained in solution. Label-free imaging of the protein corona by synchrotron radiation deep UV fluorescence microscopy (SR-DUV) was performed. In situ images of the protein corona were obtained, and the adsorbed protein quantity, the coverage rate, and the corona heterogeneity were determined. The stability kinetics of the microplastic suspensions were measured by light transmission using a Turbiscan analyzer. Together, the microscopic and kinetics results demonstrate that the protein corona can very efficiently stabilize microplastics in solution provided that the protein corona quality is sufficient. Microplastic stability depends on different parameters such as the particle's intrinsic properties (size, density, hydrophobicity) and the protein corona formation that changes the particle wettability, electrostatic charge, and steric hindrance. By controlling these parameters with proteins, it becomes possible to keep microplastics in and out of solution, paving the way for applications in the field of microplastic pollution control and remediation.

EVALUATION OF CLIMATE-INDUCED EVOLUTION OF THE MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THERMOKARST PLAINS IN THE PERMAFROST ZONE USING REMOTE SENSING DATA

Changing geocryological conditions and the permafrost zone landscape due to climate change is currently an acute issue actively studied by many researchers. However, insufficient attention is paid to the change in the morphological structure and quantitative analysis. The aim of the study was a quantitative analysis of morphological structure of the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion and lacustrine thermokarst plains. The study was carried out based on satellite imagery, including archival images of Corona with a resolution of 3–12 m/pix, for 1961–1979, and a set of modern high-resolution images of 0.5–2.5 m/pix for 2008–2019. Analysis of changes in the morphological structure of thermokarst plains was carried out in 9 key areas located in the zone of continuous permafrost, in the north of the West Siberian Lowland, at the mouth of the Lena River, in Eastern Siberia, on Baffin Island. Checking statistical differences between samples 1961–1979 and 2013–2019 using the Smirnov criterion revealed statistically significant differences in the distributions of lake areas of the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion in only two sites. In one of these areas, the changes are of a smooth and integral-exponential form of the distribution of lake areas preserved. Assessment of the significance of statistical differences for 1964–1976 and 2008–2014 for the thermokarst plains revealed a significant difference for only one area. The change in the morphological structure of the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion due to climatic changes is more intense than that of thermokarst plains; changes affected 22% of key areas versus 12% near thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion. Key areas where changes have been identified are located on the Yamal Peninsula. The resistance of morphological structures to climatic changes is higher than that of individual components of the landscape. Erosion processes are the first to respond to climatic changes, and the change in these processes leads to a change in the distribution of the areas of thermokarst lakes in thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion during the intensification of their descent and transformation into khasyreys.

Image enhancement with wavelet-optimized whitening

Context. Due to its physical nature, the solar corona exhibits large spatial variations of intensity that make it difficult to simultaneously visualize the features present at all levels and scales. Many general-purpose and specialized filters have been proposed to enhance coronal images. However, most of them require the ad hoc tweaking of parameters to produce subjectively good results. Aims. Our aim was to develop a general purpose image enhancement technique that would produce equally good results, but based on an objective criterion. Methods. The underlying principle of the method is the equalization, or whitening, of power in the à trous wavelet spectrum of the input image at all scales and locations. An edge-avoiding modification of the à trous transform that uses bilateral weighting by the local variance in the wavelet planes is used to suppress the undesirable halos otherwise produced by discontinuities in the data. Results. Results are presented for a variety of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and white light images of the solar corona. The proposed filter produces sharp and contrasted output, without requiring the manual adjustment of parameters. Furthermore, the built-in denoising scheme prevents the explosion of high-frequency noise typical of other enhancement methods, without smoothing statistically significant small-scale features. The standard version of the algorithm is about two times faster than the widely used multiscale Gaussian normalization (MGN). The bilateral version is slower, but provides significantly better results in the presence of spikes or edges. Comparisons with other methods suggest that the whitening principle may correspond to the subjective criterion of most users when adjusting free parameters.

A Methodology for Georeferencing and Mosaicking Corona Imagery in Semi-Arid Environments

High-resolution Corona imagery acquired by the United States through spy missions in the 1960s presents an opportunity to gain critical insight into historic land cover conditions and expand the timeline of available data for land cover change analyses, particularly in regions such as Northern China where data from that era are scarce. Corona imagery requires time-intensive pre-processing, and the existing literature lacks the necessary detail required to replicate these processes easily. This is particularly true in landscapes where dynamic physical processes, such as aeolian desertification, reshape topography over time or regions with few persistent features for use in geo-referencing. In this study, we present a workflow for georeferencing Corona imagery in a highly desertified landscape that contained mobile dunes, shifting vegetation cover, and a few reference points. We geo-referenced four Corona images from Inner Mongolia, China using uniquely derived ground control points and Landsat TM imagery with an overall accuracy of 11.77 m, and the workflow is documented in sufficient detail for replication in similar environments.

Exploring the Limits of Synthetic Creation of Solar EUV Images via Image-to-image Translation

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a NASA multispectral decade-long mission that has been daily producing terabytes of observational data from the Sun, has been recently used as a use case to demonstrate the potential of machine-learning methodologies and to pave the way for future deep space mission planning. In particular, the idea of using image-to-image translation to virtually produce extreme ultraviolet channels has been proposed in several recent studies, as a way to both enhance missions with fewer available channels and to alleviate the challenges due to the low downlink rate in deep space. This paper investigates the potential and the limitations of such a deep learning approach by focusing on the permutation of four channels and an encoder–decoder based architecture, with particular attention to how morphological traits and brightness of the solar surface affect the neural network predictions. In this work we want to answer the question: can synthetic images of the solar corona produced via image-to-image translation be used for scientific studies of the Sun? The analysis highlights that the neural network produces high-quality images over 3 orders of magnitude in count rate (pixel intensity) and can generally reproduce the covariance across channels within a 1% error. However, the model performance drastically diminishes in correspondence to extremely high energetic events like flares, and we argue that the reason is related to the rareness of such events posing a challenge to model training.

Tomography of the Solar Corona with the Metis Coronagraph I: Predictive Simulations with Visible-Light Images

The Solar Orbiter/Metis coronagraph records full-Sun visible-light polarized brightness (\(pB\)-) images of the solar corona. This work investigates the utility of a synoptic observational program of Metis for tomographic reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of the electron density of the global solar corona. During its lifetime, the mission’s distance to the Sun will range over \(\approx 0.3-1.0\,\mathrm{AU}\), while its solar latitude will span \(\approx \pm 33^{\circ}\). The limitations that this orbital complexity poses on tomographic reconstructions are explored in this work. Using the predicted orbital information of Solar Orbiter and 3D-MHD simulations of the solar corona using the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model (AWSoM), time series of synthetic Metis \(pB\)-images were computed and used as data to attempt tomographic reconstruction of the model. These numerical experiments were implemented for solar-minimum and solar-maximum conditions. In both cases, images were synthesized from three orbital segments, corresponding to extreme geometrical conditions of observation by Metis: aphelion, perihelion, and maximum solar latitude. The range of heights that can be reconstructed, the required data-gathering period, and the accuracy of the reconstruction, are discussed in detail for each case. As a general conclusion, a Metis synoptic observational program with a cadence of at least four images day−1 provides enough data to attempt tomographic reconstructions during the whole lifetime of the mission, a requirement well within the two- to three-hour cadence of the current synoptic program. This program will allow implementation of tomography experimenting with different values for the cadence of the time series of images used to feed reconstructions. Its cadence will also provide continuous opportunities to select images avoiding highly dynamic events, which compromise the accuracy of tomographic reconstructions.

Processing CORONA image for generation of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and orthophoto of Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh

Processing CORONA image for generation of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and orthophoto of Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh

The Interplay between Spatial Urban Expansion and Morphologic Landscapes East of Cairo, Egypt Using Time Series Satellite Imagery

This study aims to monitor the magnitudes, rates, and directions of spatial urban expansions east of Cairo and their interactions with the initial morphologic landscapes. The approach relies on using CORONA satellite images acquired in 1969 with fine spatial resolution and time series images of Landsat and ASTER from 1984 to 2020. The CORONA images enable retrieval of the initial morphologic components, whereas the Landsat and ASTER images enable the spatial urban expansions to be mapped. The magnitudes of spatial urban expansions have been massive, in the order of 165 km2. These expansions have occurred through four main temporal phases with different spatial extents, rates, and directions in response to common urban policies and socioeconomic settings. Assessing the interactions between urban expansions and the morphology of watersheds in the study area indicates that the directions of urban expansion have been opposite to the geospatial orientations of the watersheds. In addition, significant urban areas in the order of ~8 km2 are under the direct threat of flash floods because they are misplaced within the valley floors of the studied watersheds. The study concludes that successful spatial urban expansion should consider the morphologic characteristics of the initial landscape for the purpose of maximizing interests and avoiding or reducing potential hazards against urban settlements.

Monitoring Dryland Trees With Remote Sensing. Part A: Beyond CORONA—Historical HEXAGON Satellite Imagery as a New Data Source for Mapping Open-Canopy Woodlands on the Tree Level

Monitoring woody cover by remote sensing is considered a key methodology towards sustainable management of trees in dryland forests. However, while modern very high resolution satellite (VHRS) sensors allow woodland mapping at the individual tree level, the historical perspective is often hindered by lack of appropriate image data. In this first study employing the newly accessible historical HEXAGON KH-9 stereo-panoramic camera images for environmental research, we propose their use for mapping trees in open-canopy conditions. The 2–4 feet resolution panchromatic HEXAGON satellite photographs were taken 1971–1986 within the American reconnaissance programs that are better known to the scientific community for their lower-resolution CORONA images. Our aim is to evaluate the potential of combining historical CORONA and HEXAGON with recent WorldView VHRS imagery for retrospective woodland change mapping on the tree level. We mapped all trees on 30 1-ha test sites in open-canopy argan woodlands in Morocco in the field and from the VHRS imagery for estimating changes of tree density and size between 1967/1972 and 2018. Prior to image interpretation, we used simulations based on unmanned aerial system (UAS) imagery for exemplarily examining the role of illumination, viewing geometry and image resolution on the appearance of trees and their shadows in the historical panchromatic images. We show that understanding these parameters is imperative for correct detection and size-estimation of tree crowns. Our results confirm that tree maps derived solely from VHRS image analysis generally underestimate the number of small trees and trees in clumped-canopy groups. Nevertheless, HEXAGON images compare remarkably well with WorldView images and have much higher tree-mapping potential than CORONA. By classifying the trees in three sizes, we were able to measure tree-cover changes on an ordinal scale. Although we found no clear trend of forest degradation or recovery, our argan forest sites show varying patterns of change, which are further analysed in Part B of our study. We conclude that the HEXAGON stereo-panoramic camera images, of which 670,000 worldwide will soon be available, open exciting opportunities for retrospective monitoring of trees in open-canopy conditions and other woody vegetation patterns back into the 1980s and 1970s.

Declassified intelligence satellite imagery as a tool to reconstruct past landforms and surface processes: The submerged riverscape of the Tigris River below the Mosul Dam Lake, Iraq

AbstractLocated along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Mosul Dam Reservoir is the second biggest dam of the Near East and represents an important water storage for local human activities. The dam was built between 1981 and 1988 north of the village of Eski Mosul, submerging the course of the Tigris River for c. 100 km. The analysis of historical images derived from declassified Corona satellite imagery acquired between December 1967 and August 1968 reveals the pristine pattern of the Tigris River, including the seasonal changes of its riverbed, shifting across the hydrological year from meandering to anastomosing patterns. Geomorphological mapping based on Corona images allowed us to estimate the seasonal modification of fluvial elements such as the floodplain and point, middle and longitudinal bars. The comparison with Landsat data collected since the 1990s showed the first phases of the basin filling and the control on the present‐day aspect of the lake inherited from the setting of the Tigris channel belt and, more in general, the litho‐structural control over the evolution of the local hydrographic network; we also document the influence of the original Tigris River course on its recent insertion into the lake. Our work allowed reconstruction of the ancient fluvial landscape below the Mosul Dam Lake and the evolution of its riverscape controlled by litho‐structural factors and seasonal variations of the river discharge. Finally, this contribution highlights the relevance of declassified intelligence satellite imagery in interpreting natural geomorphic processes and landforms, today altered by human agency.

Earth Observation to Investigate Occurrence, Characteristics and Changes of Glaciers, Glacial Lakes and Rock Glaciers in the Poiqu River Basin (Central Himalaya)

Meltwater from the cryosphere contributes a significant fraction of the freshwater resources in the countries receiving water from the Third Pole. Within the ESA-MOST Dragon 4 project, we addressed in particular changes of glaciers and proglacial lakes and their interaction. In addition, we investigated rock glaciers in permafrost environments. Here, we focus on the detailed investigations which have been performed in the Poiqu River Basin, central Himalaya. We used in particular multi-temporal stereo satellite imagery, including high-resolution 1960/70s Corona and Hexagon spy images and contemporary Pleiades data. Sentinel-2 data was applied to assess the glacier flow. The results reveal that glacier mass loss continuously increased with a mass budget of −0.42 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1 for the period 2004–2018. The mass loss has been primarily driven by an increase in summer temperature and is further accelerated by proglacial lakes, which have become abundant. The glacial lake area more than doubled between 1964 and 2017. The termini of glaciers that flow into lakes moved on average twice as fast as glaciers terminating on land, indicating that dynamical thinning plays an important role. Rock glaciers are abundant, covering approximately 21 km2, which was more than 10% of the glacier area (approximately 190 km2) in 2015. With ongoing glacier wastage, rock glaciers can become an increasingly important water resource.

How Can We Understand the Past from Now On? Three-Dimensional Modelling and Landscape Reconstruction of the Shuanghuaishu Site in the Central Plains of China

The Shuanghuaishu (SHS) site in China is one of the 100 most important archaeological discoveries over the past 100 years; its historical heritage can be traced directly back 5300 years. Understanding the early landscape of the site would provide important information about the origin of Chinese civilization. The SHS site is buried and surface traces are difficult to see; therefore, we attempted to reconstruct the early landscape of the site based on a current surface landscape model and environmental archaeological analysis. We created a modern three-dimensional (3D) landscape model of the study area from high spatial resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aerial photographs and analysed the distance change between the Yellow River and SHS site in the past 60 years from CORONA and Landsat images. By combining environmental archaeological survey results, archaeological excavation data, relevant papers, and field measurements, we reconstructed the paleotopography of the SHS site during the Yangshao period (7000–5000 aBP). On this basis, 3D natural and human landscapes during the Yangshao period were rebuilt. The results show that (1) Satellite images acquired at different resolutions can provide multiscale spatial information about the site, and high-precision models of current conditions can be quickly generated from UAV aerial photography. (2) From 1960 to 2020, the shortest distance between the SHS site and the Yellow River was approximately 512 m. The location of bedrock on Mang Mountain can be used to infer the early extent of the northern terrace at the site. (3) Environmental archaeology provided information about the palaeoenvironment of the site area. By incorporating spatial information technology and 3D visualization, we can better restore the early landscape of the SHS site. Our work integrates environmental archaeology, field archaeology, and spatial technology, enabling data and modelling support for the visual interpretation of the SHS site.

Spatial Decomposition Method for UV Image of Corona on a Large Generator Stator Winding

This article proposes the regularity of the possible corona sites in space on the large generator stator winding and the spatial decomposition method for the UV image of surface partial discharge and corona.

Research into Cryolithozone Spatial Pattern Changes Based on the Mathematical Morphology of Landscapes

Lacustrine thermokarst is receiving great interest as a landscape-forming process. Despite this, research dealing with the quantitative analysis of the changes in the morphological patterns of thermokarst plains under ongoing climate change is lacking. This study aims to analyze changes in the morphological patterns of cryolithozone landscapes based on models provided by the mathematical morphology of landscapes. Our research involves eight key sites within lacustrine thermokarst plains and nine key sites within thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion. These sites differ in geomorphological, geocryological, and physiographical terms, and are situated in different regions such as Yamal, Taimyr, Kolyma lowland, river Lena delta, Baffin’s Land, and Alaska. Archival Corona images (date 1) and high-resolution satellite imagery from June to August 2008–2014 (date 2) were used to obtain the model’s morphometric data. According to quantitative analysis of the models, the morphological pattern of the lacustrine thermokarst plains did not undergo significant changes during the observation period, while 20% of the key sites within the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion underwent essential changes in lake area distributions. This difference may come from the higher reactivity of the fluvial erosion process on climate change than that of the thermokarst.

A Pipeline for Automated Processing of Declassified Corona KH-4 (1962–1972) Stereo Imagery

The Corona KH-4 reconnaissance satellite missions from 1962-1972 acquired panoramic stereo imagery with high spatial resolution of 1.8-7.5 m. The potential of 800,000+ declassified Corona images has not been leveraged due to the complexities arising from handling of panoramic imaging geometry, film distortions and limited availability of the metadata required for georeferencing of the Corona imagery. This paper presents Corona Stereo Pipeline (CoSP): A pipeline for processing of Corona KH-4 stereo panoramic imagery. CoSP utlizes a deep learning based feature matcher SuperGlue to automatically match features point between Corona KH-4 images and recent satellite imagery to generate Ground Control Points (GCPs). To model the imaging geometry and the scanning motion of the panoramic KH-4 cameras, a rigorous camera model consisting of modified collinearity equations with time dependent exterior orientation parameters is employed. The results show that using the entire frame of the Corona image, bundle adjustment using well-distributed GCPs results in an average standard deviation (SD) of less than 2 pixels. The distortion pattern of image residuals of GCPs and y-parallax in epipolar resampled images suggest that film distortions due to long term storage as likely cause of systematic deviations. Compared to the SRTM DEM, the Corona DEM computed using CoSP achieved a Normalized Median Absolute Deviation (NMAD) of elevation differences of ~4 m over an area of approx. 4000 $km^2$. We show that the proposed pipeline can be applied to sequence of complex scenes involving high relief and glacierized terrain and that the resulting DEMs can be used to compute long term glacier elevation changes over large areas.

Solar VUV telescope for nanosatellites

Within the Universat program, a set of solar vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) telescopes has been developed for deployment on 6U nanosatellites. Telescopes are designed to get images of the solar corona. The spectral ranges of observations is considered, the characteristics of the nanosatellite from the point of view of the observations feasibility are opmized, the optical scheme of the telescope and VUV multilayer mirrors coatings and thin-film filters are modelled. Keywords: Nanosatellite, VUV, telescope, solar corona.

ICCD Images of Leader Corona in a 4 m Rod-Plane Gap Discharge

As the featured discharge pattern and widely present in lightning discharge channels, leader corona system is crucial for continuous leader propagations in long air gap discharges and natural lightning, which had attracted numerous studies experimentally or theoretically. In the simulation of discharge process and lightning attachment calculations, the vertex angle of streamer zone ahead of leader channel is the crucial parameter, which could only be obtained by discharge experiments. As a result, morphological researches on leader corona system gave an intuitive insight on the streamer zone ahead of the leader channel and helped comprehensive theoretical modeling studies especially in the calculation of electric field. In order to obtain the accurate shape features and provide the calculation parameter for model modification, in this paper, experiments of 4-m long air gap discharges were carried out based on a four-frame PCO.dicam C4 ICCD camera. Clear images of leader corona were observed. Results showed that the corona zone was assumed as conical and the average angle at the vertex was 75.2° which was less than the first corona during the stable leader propagation stage. Influences of exposure time and leader branching phenomenon were investigated in this paper. It was concluded that the competitive relationship of the branched leaders shrank the vertex angle of the conical corona zone. Results in this paper could instruct the future theoretical model researches on leader corona system and help to modify the existing lightning attachment models like SLIM or leader process model.

Hydrophobin‐Coated Solid Fluorinated Nanoparticles for 19F‐MRI

AbstractIn recent years, fluorine‐magnetic resonance imaging (19F‐MRI) has emerged as a promising diagnostic technique, complementary to traditional proton magnetic resonance imaging (1H‐MRI) and easily translatable for clinical use, providing in‐depth in vivo quantification without the use of radioactive agents. This creates a need for the development of appropriate delivery systems for highly omniphobic fluorinated probes. The use of the film‐forming protein hydrophobin (HFBII) represents a sustainable and simple method to invert the philicity of fluorinated surfaces. Here, the ability of HFBII to form a rigid protein monolayer on superfluorinated coatings rendering them hydrophilic is shown, a property that is also retained in biological environment. This approach is then translated to directly disperse a solid superfluorinated 19F‐MRI probe, PERFECTA, in aqueous solution through the formation of core‐shell hydrophobin stabilized PERFECTA nanoparticles (NPs). The obtained NPs are fully characterized in terms of morphology, magnetic properties, colloidal stability, protein corona formation, cellular viability, and imaging performance.