The Magnetic Nature of Solar Flares

Advisors: Angela DesJardins and Richard Canfield

Due to its dynamic activity, the sun has a great impact on everyday lives in our natural and technological world. The variation in solar activity, in the form of flares and coronal mass ejections, has been shown to impact our climate, possibly contributing to a mini ice age in the 17th century. A direct hit by a coronal mass ejection, and the associated flare effects, can knock out satellites, disrupt radio communication, endanger astronauts in space, and even spur power grid failures. The more advanced warning we have of these massive explosions, the more we can prevent harmful effects. So how do we predict a solar flare? Most solar physicists agree that that a process called "magnetic reconnection" plays a significant role in the initiation and evolution of a flare. What we don't know is, what happens to ignite the flare, and where does the reconnection occur? In order to come closer to being able to answer this question, the goal of this specific project is to understand where reconnection occurs with respect to the sun's magnetic field.

The student involved with this project will use a graphical user interface to create and analyze data for a flare observed by the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite and other supporting satellites (TRACE, SOHO). In addtion, the student will model the magnetic field using a novel magnetic topology technique. They will learn about how X-rays are produced in solar flares and how X-ray images and magnetic topology can help us understand flare initiation and evolution. They will learn about how modern space instruments work, and how their data are analyzed to develop a coherent picture of the physical processes taking place.

The student should be very comfortable with computers, including the Unix operating system. Prior knowledge about solar flares and IDL is preferred.

You can read about related REU projects here: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/home/www/reu/2009/wsimpson/ , http://solar.physics.montana.edu/home/www/reu/2007/jswanson/