{
  "abstract": "Nearly three decades after the first SOHO/EIT observations, reported EUV-wave speeds still range from a few tens to more than 1000 km/s. This Perspective asks what those numbers actually trace. A measured image speed depends on passband and line-of-sight weighting, cadence, difference imaging, the selected crest or leading edge, propagation sector, fitted interval, and projection geometry. Same-event comparisons quantify this observation-operator effect. In events common to the Nitta and Muhr analyses, early or fastest-sector measurements were typically higher; five of six directly shared events differed by about 30%. For 19 May 2007, the 171 Angstrom peak speed was 475 +/- 47 km/s, compared with 238 +/- 20 km/s in 304 Angstrom, while the 171 Angstrom cadence was four times faster than the 195 Angstrom cadence. A sampling audit of the 1 April 2017 SWAP event shows that a repeated speed near 834 km/s is almost exactly one 91.6-Mm radial ring per 110-s image interval. In a reconstructed 3 April sector, AIA 171 Angstrom gives about 405 km/s, compared with the published SWAP mean of 484 km/s; an independently selected AIA 193 Angstrom ridge gives about 250 km/s under strongly shortened exposures. Such differences are not automatic evidence for different MHD modes. A same-event energy pilot separates compact-source heating, dimming/ejecta, and one weak-compression front segment. The current data do not justify a universal power law, but define a falsifiable question: is the fraction of released energy carried by the front scale invariant from compact quiet-Sun events to global waves and shocks? Establishing this dependence would show which eruption scales can contribute materially to coronal heating.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.10167",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Olena Podladchikova"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3vnsf8bh4zpk9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.10167",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "3vnsf8bh4zpk9",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10167",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.EP"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.SR"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212193064",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.10167",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3vnsf8bh4zpk9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:12Z",
      "native_id": "2609.10167",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10167"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.EP",
      "subfield": "planetary"
    },
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.SR",
      "subfield": "stellar"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Untangling EIT Waves: What a Measured Speed Actually Traces",
  "title_text": "Untangling EIT Waves: What a Measured Speed Actually Traces",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3vnsf8bh4zpk9",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}