Brightness for the December 14, 2020 Total Solar Eclipse
Brightness
(Newkirk Filter)
Log Brightness
(Unsharp Masked)
Brightness
(Wavelet Filtered)
Here we show prediction images for the total brightness of the corona. As mentioned on the main page, these images include the polarized and unpolarized contribution of scattered photospheric light from electrons in the corona (known as the K-corona). We chose the blue colormap to contrast them with the polarized brightness images shown on the other pages.
The first image/movie on the left shows the total brightness processed with a Newkirk radial filter. This is a rough attempt at approximating what the human eye might see during the solar eclipse. The middle column shows a digital processing of these images to bring out certain features: The combination of log-scaling and unsharp masking brightens faint features while enhancing edges. On the right, a wavelet high pass filter sharpens fine scale features throughout the corona, showing streamer edges, bright loops, and non-radial features. Although the original images seem quite diffuse, these enhancements bring out the underlying complexity of the plasma and magnetic field distribution in the model.
Brightness
(Newkirk Filter)
Log Brightness
(Unsharp Masked)
Brightness
(Wavelet Filtered)
Scientific versions of these images, and the unprocessed (raw) data are provided below in FITS format. The FITS headers have the typical metadata used in solar imaging measurements.
Brightness
(Raw)
Brightness
(Newkirk Filter)
Log Brightness
(Unsharp Masked)
Brightness
(Wavelet Filtered)
