Research Project

I am working with Andrés on tracking magnetic regions from the Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope magnetograms using the Bipolar Active Region Detection (BARD) code for solar cycles 21 and 22. The sun produces a magnetic field much like the Earth's through the solar dynamo which reverses in polarity on average every 11 years. During magnetically active periods, sunspots have been shown to be highly magnetic and usually form in bipolar pairs. With the data from the previous REU student, Mike Deluca, 30 years worth of magnetic data from the sun can be assimilated into useful databases that will help to further study the magnetic properties of the sun.