ECCCO: The EUV CME and Coronal Connectivity Observatory

Understanding the dynamics of eruptive events leaving the Sun and the conditions that produce the outward streaming solar wind requires knowledge of the middle corona, the region between 1.5–3 Rs. All matter, magnetic fields, and energy leaving the Sun pass through this poorly-understood sector of the Sun’s atmosphere, but observations in this region are limited.  To fill this gap, we introduce The EUV CME and Coronal Connectivity Observatory (ECCCO), which has been proposed for the current NASA Heliophysics SMEX call.  ECCCO consists of two instruments: an imager that views the Sun out to 3 Rs and a spectrograph that produces spectrally pure, overlapped images of the Sun (overlappograms).  Both instruments will have two channels, a long channel ranging from 171 — 208 Å to capture plasma in the 1-2.5 MK range, and a short channel ranging from 126 — 138 Å to capture hot plasma in the 8-12 MK range.  The science goals of ECCCO are two-fold: 1.  To understand the sources, release and acceleration of the solar wind, and 2. To understand the symbiotic relationship between eruptive solar events and the large scale coronal structure.