Type of Project: Simulations and Observations

Skills/Interest Required: The student must have an Interest in studying the coronal heating problem and understanding the coronal loop structure. Good knowledge of IDL and Fortran will be an advantage.

Mentor: Dr. Mah Asgari

Email: asgari_at_head_cfa.harvard.edu

Background:

It has long been assumed that the solar corona is heated by dissipation of magnetic disturbances that propagate up from the Sun's lower atmospheres. Flows interacting with magnetic flux elements in the photosphere can produce magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) waves that propagate up along the flux tubes and dissipate their energy in the corona. However, the detailed physical processes by which the corona is heated are not yet fully understood.

Project:

In this project, we look at the modeling of coronal loops by Alfven wave turbulence and then we consider the observational signatures of such modeling.

1. First the student will study the heating of coronal loops by performing the numerical simulations of coronal loops observed in an active region (Figure1)

2. Then the student will look for the evidence of Alfven waves by looking at the Doppler shifts of the velocity fluctuations from EIS observations (Figure1).

Image:

Figure1: (Top) Ten magnetic field lines are fitted to the observed coronal loops. The field lines were traced through the potential field modeling. And for each field line the dynamics of Alfven waves is simulated. (Bottom) Snap shot of line of sight Doppler shift velocity fluctuations.