Energy Partition in a Flare-CME Event

Advisor: Chunming Zhu

A solar Flare is composed of thousands of loops that evolve independently and sequentially. Our solar group at MSU developed a method to quantify the energy input into each flaring loop. This is achieved by modeling the flare heating and cooling processes, with constraints using observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Furthermore, we also measure the mass and speed of the coronal mass ejection (CME) often associated with the flare, and estimate its mechanic energy. With these approaches, we will evaluate the energy partition between the flare and CME.

In this project, students will run models and analyze astronomical observations, and learn about the Sun's atmosphere and magnetic fields. Experience with IDL or similar programming languages is desired though not required.

You can read about a related REU project in 2018 , which is published in the Astrophysical Journal.