Magnetic Reconnection in the Sun's Corona

Advisors: Marika McCathy and Dana Longcope

To view the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, on earth, you would have to wait until totality during a solar eclipse. However, when viewing the Sun in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) we see the corona is comprised of many loops, which trace the magnetic fields. These loops are created by a processes called magnetic reconnection. During this process, magnetic field lines change their connectivity, magnetic flux is exchanged between neighboring systems, and magnetic energy is converted into other forms. This project will involve analyzing EUV observations of the Sun's corona to identify and characterize reconnection events, in order to understand this physical process further.

You can read about related REU projects here: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/reu/2015/mimccart/