Type of Project: Data Analysis

Skills/Interest Required: Interest in analyzing space-based observations. Some programming skills required. The data analysis will be performed primarily using IDL.

Mentor: Dr. Mari Paz Miralles and Dr. John Raymond

Email: mmiralles_at_cfa.harvard.edu and jraymond_at_cfa.harvard.edu

Background:

Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the solar corona. Reconnection occurs when the magnetic field lines of a highly conducting plasma are broken and rejoined, thus changing the magnetic connectivity of the system. This process is responsible for mass and energy release during solar jets. Observations show solar jets traveling at large altitudes in the solar corona without falling back into the lower atmosphere [1].

Project:

The goal of this project will be to characterize the jet plasma and dynamics as the jets propagate in the open field regions of the solar wind. To accomplish this goal, we will determine their kinematic properties and trace the jet response into the inner heliosphere. For these tasks we will analyze recent solar jet event images from Hinode/XRT, SDO/AIA, STEREO/SECCHI, and SOHO/LASCO.

Image:

Figure: Hinode/XRT observations of a standard coronal jet in the northern polar coronal hole (from [2]).

References:

[1] Miralles, M. P. et al. 2012, ApJ, in preparation

[2] Moore et al. 2010, ApJ, 720, 757