July 2 - 3

Professor Qiu sent me a more detailed timeline of the project and the things I have to get done before the midterm presentations. I do feel a little stressed, since it is a lot of work. But I also seem to be making pretty good progress on my work so far. I am still working on getting the magnetograms and the reconnection rates for each of the flares. I keep running into program errors, which is frustrating, since each program takes a long time to run. On a lighter note, Jada and I volunteered to work on the REU's webpage for this year so that should be a fun break!

July 4

We had the day off for the fourth of July! Courtney, Nicole, and I went white-water rafting on the Gallatin River through some class IV rapids. It was really exciting but also tiring. Then, we went to Peet's Hill to watch the fireworks. Overall, it was a really nice day!

July 5

I finished getting a magnetogram for each of the 17 events, but then I realized many of the images are not fully centered on the flare event. I also finished getting the reconnection rates for 5 events. I need to work on getting the rest of the reconnection rates. It is a little difficult, since it can be hard to guess where the cutout of each image should be to make sure the flare is fully centered in the cutout image. In addition, I met with Dr. Qiu this morning to go over my progress on the project. Once I finish getting the reconnection rates then I can start the spectral analysis. We also decided to get rid of 2 of the 17 total events, meaning that I'll proceed with working on 15 events instead.

July 6

I worked on centering the magnetograms on each event so that no parts of the flare would be left out from the reconnection rate data. I also got the reconnection rates for all of the 15 events.

Weekend

My mom flew in from Boston! We spent the weekend in Yellowstone, mostly spending time in the lower loop. I had downloaded the Gypsy Guide app that was a driving tour. It was definitely worth it, since the guide would read out information about the park, including the history of its exploration and opening the park as well as different earthquakes or natural disasters that have since shaped the park. We also saw a bunch of smaller but really nice side drives that less people were on. Some highlights included firehole drive (we couldn't swim since the water level was too high but it was so cool to look at), white dome geyser which erupted as soon as we pulled up, steamboat geyser, dragon's mouth spring (which sounded like a growling dragon), and roaring mountain. We also visited a bunch of the more popular sites, such as artist paint pots, grand prismatic, the grand canyon of yellowstone, and mammoth hot springs. Overall, it was a great trip!