Ryoma Matsuura
Montana State University Solar Physics REU 2021
Adviser: Dr. Chunming Zhu
I am a junior at Trinity University, and I plan on majoring in Physics and Astronomy, as well as Computing as a
Second Major with an Astronomy minor. This summer, I participated in the Solar
Physics REU program at Montana State University in order to explore my interest in and learn about the
field of solar physics, as well as get experience in data analysis and science research in general.
Solar flares are sudden explosions near the sunspots that are made up of flare ribbons and flare loops that
evolve independently. During solar flares, enormous amounts of energy are released, increasing the emission
of light across the electromagnetic spectrum. These solar flares are sometimes accompanied by coronal mass
ejections, or CMEs or short. CMEs are another type of solar explosion where giant bubbles of plasma and magnetic
field are released at very high speeds. For my project, I studied the energy partition in these events where
both solar flares and CMEs occur together. In other words, my goal was to answer the question "How much energy
is released through flares, and how much is released through CMEs?", or more specifically, how the flare energy
radiated from the corona compares with that from the transition region, and how the mechanical energy of the
ejected CMEs splits into kinetic energy and potential energy. (Maybe add images of flare/cme/sdo/etc.)
In order to accomplish this goal, I used observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the
Enthalpy-Based Thermal Evolution of Loops (EBTEL) model to calculate the energy input of the flare loops. In
addition to that, I estimated the mechanical energy of the CMEs associated with those flares by calcualting the
mass and velocity using observations from Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). After calculating
the energies for each flare-CME pairs, I studied the energy partition based on the results.
After the program, I plan on presenting my work at American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting this December
at New Orleans, LA. Find more information on the AGU meeting here.
Every two weeks, I presented and reported my progress to other interns and mentors. Short descriptions of
my progress for every two weeks as well as the presentation slides used can be found by clicking on the links
below.
Email: rmatsuu1@trinity.edu
LinkedIn: See Profile