Riemann Map Operator for Solar Front Diagnostics
Abstract
Identifying a shock from a moving solar brightness front requires relating the observed emission to changes in the plasma state. The Riemann framework describes shocks, rarefactions and other waves as parts of a pattern connecting different states. We present the Riemann Map Operator (RMO), an inverse diagnostic framework implemented as a web application to help observers identify magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shock families from incomplete measurements. RMO tests candidate local connections against conservation laws, entropy requirements and characteristic conditions, while retaining observational uncertainties and model assumptions. We demonstrate the approach with five solar examples and a complementary in-situ comparison. An event combining extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) imaging and spectroscopy admits both fast and slow shock connections within the tested conditions. For an EUV-radio event, we derive an upstream-flow constraint that would exclude ordinary slow shocks within the adopted model, provided both diagnostics sample the same front. A flare-loop benchmark reproduces the published spectral profiles and recovers slow-shock ordering in the isothermal limit. The Solar Orbiter comparison recovers an Alfvenic relation between measured velocity and magnetic-field changes. Together, the examples show how RMO connects observations to admissible MHD interpretations and identifies the additional measurements needed to distinguish them.
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BibTeX
@misc{podladchikova2026riemann,
title = {{Riemann Map Operator for Solar Front Diagnostics}},
author = {Olena Podladchikova},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.15210},
eprint = {2609.15210},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15210},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Riemann Map Operator for Solar Front Diagnostics
AU - Olena Podladchikova
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.15210
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15210
AB - Identifying a shock from a moving solar brightness front requires relating the observed emission to changes in the plasma state. The Riemann framework describes shocks, rarefactions and other waves as parts of a pattern connecting different states. We present the Riemann Map Operator (RMO), an inverse diagnostic framework implemented as a web application to help observers identify magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shock families from incomplete measurements. RMO tests candidate local connections against conservation laws, entropy requirements and characteristic conditions, while retaining observational uncertainties and model assumptions. We demonstrate the approach with five solar examples and a complementary in-situ comparison. An event combining extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) imaging and spectroscopy admits both fast and slow shock connections within the tested conditions. For an EUV-radio event, we derive an upstream-flow constraint that would exclude ordinary slow shocks within the adopted model, provided both diagnostics sample the same front. A flare-loop benchmark reproduces the published spectral profiles and recovers slow-shock ordering in the isothermal limit. The Solar Orbiter comparison recovers an Alfvenic relation between measured velocity and magnetic-field changes. Together, the examples show how RMO connects observations to admissible MHD interpretations and identifies the additional measurements needed to distinguish them.
ER -