Solar Physics
B.S., Astronomy, 1977, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
M.S., Theoretical Astrophysics, 1979, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Ph.D., Theoretical Astrophysics (Cum Laude), 1983, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Special Studies in Management and Administration,
Harvard University Extension School (1988-1990)
Associate Editor,
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Member,
Solar and Heliospheric NASA Heliophysics Management Operations Working Group
Member,
NASA Living with a Star Management Operations Working Group
Chair, NASA Living with a Star Focus Group on
"Solar Modulation of the Galactic Cosmic Rays and the Production
of Cosmogenic Isotope Archives of Long-term Solar Activity, Used to Interpret Past Climate Changes."
Research: Physics of the Solar Corona and Solar Wind
Flares: MHD, Particle Acceleration, X-ray Emission
(Publications).
Coronal Loops: Thermal Structure and Heating
(Publications).
Prominences: Formation, Magnetic Structure, and Eruption
(Publications).
Sunspots: Flutedness, Evershed Flow
(Publications).
Solar & Stellar Winds: Structure and Drivers
(Publications).
Nonlinear Phenomena: Catastrophes, Limit Cycles, Strange Attractors,
Turbulence, Chaos (Publications).
Teaching
In the Spring of 2007 and 2003 I co-taught the advanced graduate course PHYS 580, "Hydrodynamics
and Magnetohydrodynamics", together with members of the MSU solar group. We alternated teaching the
subjects listed in the
Syllabus.
Every fall since 2005 I teach the University Seminar (
CLS 101), a broad literature based course for freshmen.
In the Spring of 2002 I taught
Electromagnetic Theory I, PHYS 519-01, and
in the Fall of 2000 PHYS 515, Advanced Topics in Physics,
on "MHD and
Plasma Physics", a course in basic MHD and Plasma Physics
with relevance to recent observations of the Sun, the Earth's magnetosphere,
astrophysical objects, and laboratory plasma experiments.
In the spring of 2000 I taught the sections on "Operations" and "Telemetry, Tracking,
& Control" in the webcast Space Mission Design Seminar of the
Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium.
In the fall of 1999 I led the seminar
"Solar & Stellar Winds".
In the past I have taught
courses in Astronomy and Physics at
Harvard University , Stanford University, the
University of Buenos Aires, and
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Student Research Supervision
My collaborations with undergraduates, graduates, Ph.D. candidates, and Postdocs
have in all cases resulted in publications in refereed journals, with usually the
student as first author. Here is a list of papers.
My graduate student
Jonathan Cirtain, (2005),
recently won the "Young Scientist Award" of the
International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy/International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. This award was announced at the
Annual Meeting in Perugia, Italy, in July 2007.
Trish Jibben and Barry Vanderhorst obtained a Master's degree in 2005.
Current graduate students are
Henry (Trae) Winter,
Andrés Muñoz
and Jason Scott.
At the AGU meeting in New Orleans in May 2005, Trae Winter won the prize for
"Outstanding Student Paper Award" twice, one for a research paper and another
one for an educational paper.
Jason Scott, graduating from MSU in December 2004, won the "2005 Dean's
Award for Excellence as the Outstanding Graduating Senior in Sciences".
Both he and Jonathan Cirtain won NASA
Graduate Student Research Program fellowships to support their graduate studies.
I am the PI of our NSF supported
Research Opportunities for
Undergraduates program, ten weeks of solar research during the summer.
In 2006 I worked with
Kudzanayi Munetsi-Mugomba from
Lincoln University
determining the accuracy and stability of analytical solutions for the
temperature structure in coronal loops. In the summers of 2004 and 2005
Antonia Wilmot-Smith, from
St. Andrews University in Scotland worked with
Dibyendu Nandi and me
on a project to simulate solar and stellar cycles through sets of nonlinear
ordinary differential equations, while in the summer of 2003 Dibyendu and I
worked with
Andrés Muñoz from the
Universidad de los Andes in Colombia on a project to simulate stellar dynamo cycles.
Another succesful project
within this program was with Paul Wood from St. Andrews in the summer of
2000.
Local high school teacher
Ivy Merriot, director of the on-line
Abeatern Academy works
with me on a
project to set up an on-line database of simultaneous sigmoids,
observed in soft X-rays, and prominences observed in H-alpha. The first two
years of this project were funded by the
Murdock Trust, and we
are now continuing on NASA funds.
I mentored a half year visit to MSU of Szymon Gburek, from the Space Research Centre
of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and I have worked with him on
Blind Iterative Deconvolution of the
TRACE Point Spread Function during an extended
visit to MSU in the fall of 2001. Szymon graduated in the Fall of 2003, and has published
several chapters of his thesis.
Space Exploration: Solar Physics Missions
Future Missions:The
MSU Solar Physics group continues its involvement in space science missions
during the first decade of this century.
MSU students, from undergraduates to postdocs, are actively involved in all phases of our
missions, such as:
- Prepatory science studies
- Instrument development and testing
- Theoretical studies prompted by new space observations
Current Missions:The first of these is
Hinode,
launched on September 23, 2006. The MSU group is deeply involved with the
XRT mission operations and
data analysis. Jason Scott is analyzing coronal loop emission as seen by EIS and
XRT. MSU Lead for
this mission is Prof.
David McKenzie.
RHESSI
was launched on February 5, 2002.
My student Trae Winter is simulating solar flares to see whether agreement can
be reached with RHESSI's observations of flare X-ray emissions. MSU Lead for
this mission is Prof.
Richard Canfield.
TRACE:
I contributed to the TRACE proposal, fostered and coordinated joint
science operations between TRACE and SOHO, and currently oversee the MSU
part of TRACE Mission Operations and Data Analysis. Our former graduate
student Jonathan
Cirtain completed his thesis on data from this instrument combined
with CDS on SoHO. (Publications).
Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO)
.
Although not a space project per se, the VSO is just as important for anyone analyzing space
data. Our aim is to produce a common interface for searching and retrieving solar data that
are dispersed on computers world-wide. The key points are coming up with an effective and
efficient design and then implementing it via Web programming.
(Publications).
Yohkoh-SXT: At
Lockheed (1990-1993) I participated in the
SXT instrument
development, performance verification, science operations, and data analysis.
I co-chaired the organization of the 2002 Yohkoh 10th Anniversary meeting, and I edited the
proceedings.
Due to an unfortunate accident ground controllers lost contact with
the spacecraft in December 2001, and the mission has now ended.
(Publications).
SOHO:
As SOHO Science Operations Coordinator (1993-1998) I took part in the
testing and integration of the experiments and ground system, planned and supervised the in-orbit
commissioning of the spacecraft and experiments, chaired the SOHO Science Planning Working Group,
responsible for the implementation of SOHO Science Program, and coordinated joint observations
between the SOHO experiments, Ground Based Solar Observatories world-wide, and other spacecraft,
such as Yohkoh, TRACE, and Ulysses. (Publications).
NIXT & SMM: In the 1980's I was involved Normal Incidence X-ray
Telescope project, while at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1987-1990), and analysed data from the
Dutch Hard X-ray Imaging Spectrometer onboard the Solar Maximum Mission, while at Utrecht
University (1979-1984). (Publications).
Publications: A Complete List with Links to Preprints,
Reprints, and the
ADS Database
Presentations: A List of Seminars and
Conference Papers, 1999 - present.
Image Gallery: The Beauty of Solar Physics
Observations of Solar magnetic structures are the
only and indispensable link between Magneto-Hydrodynamics (MHD) in a controlled laboratory
setting, such as in Tokamaks and stellarators, and the MHD of exotic and fascinating, but
irreproducable and mostly unresolvable magnetic objects in the Universe , such as neutron star
pulsars, magnetic stars, and quasars.
Thus the Sun is a unique astrophysical laboratory for magnetic fields. The instruments that
Solar physicists have built to study Solar magnetic fields routinely produce stunning
imagery. A personal selection, result of the work of a high school summer
student, and pertinent to the research interests of our Solar group, is shown
here.
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