Evolution of Suprathermal Particles in the Heliosphere

Advisor: Rachael Filwett

Our sun produces particles from a wide range of sources and events, and these particles can then be transported, modulated, and accelerated in the interplanetary medium. The solar wind flows out from the sun, but transient events such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and structures such as coronal holes also are sources of particles in a wide range of energies. As these particles are ejected from the solar surface they interact with the interplanetary magnetic field. These particles and the structures they are in evolve as they leave the solar surface and travel outwards towards the planets. The solar wind is at about 1 keV, and then energetic particles are about >1 MeV, but in between is an energy range referred to as suprathermal. This energy range is preferentially accelerated at shocks to be energetic particles, which are the most critical to understand for space weather purposes.

In this project an REU student will use data from NASA missions such as Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, ACE, and STEREO to examine suprathermal particle population in various structures, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) or stream interaction regions (SIRs) to understand how particles evolve from the near-Sun region to Earth orbit. Students will use Python or IDL to examine the data. Previous knowledge of one of these languages is preferred but not necessary.