Lectures were given on the sun’s magnetic field and were very interesting. Through the use of Maxwell’s equations Dana walked us through how plasma and magnetic fields interact. I also learned how a magnetogram is obtained: the Zeeman effect. In the presence of a magnetic field, atomic energy levels will split thus altering the wavelengths. This split is more noticeable the greater the wavelength since the change in lamda goes with the wavelength squared. Infrared waves are mainly analyzed. In order to distinguish between negative or positive magnetic fields, the polarity of the photons are measured since sigma energy drops will be circularly polarized left and right (due to quantum mechanics).

I also started cycle 22! A feature that Andrés decided to add was to pre-fragment many of the large regions so that when I decided to do so, the fragmentation was already logged in the pre-detected file and I didn’t have to wait as long.