Solar X-ray Irradiance with Hinode/XRT

About Me

Hi! I'm Anne Monroe, a rising Junior at Gustavus Adolphus College studying Physics and Math. My passions are both a mile wide and a mile deep -- I'm interested in so many aspects of the world that it's hard to choose what to focus on professionally. However, I can now say confidently that I love research, both as an enticing abstract idea and as a real physical process that I've participated in. Once I figure out where I'm headed in physics, I plan to attend graduate school and continue contributing to the collective body of human knowledge.

REU Project

This summer (2023), I'm working with Dr. Aki Takeda to investigate the latitude dependence of solar x-ray irradiance using data from Hinode/XRT. Irradiance -- the radiation from the Sun received on earth -- varies over the sun's 11 year activity cycle, especially in soft x-rays. Using full-sun images collected by an international satellite's x-ray telescope (Hinode's XRT), we will derive the long-term variation of the Sun's irradiance in our desired wavelengths. Additionally, we will attempt to establish a link between the sun's latitude and its associated irradiance using image masks.

Past Research

Last summer (2022), I worked with Dr. Darsa Donelan at Gustavus Adolphus College to establish a radio-astronomy education program at my home campus. We followed NASA's Radio JOVE pamphlet when creating a dual dipole array out of PVC pipes and wires, which I lovingly named "GREG" -- Great Radio-Astronomy Education at Gustavus. This project exposed me to real, physical problem solving, something I'd never really had to do before. Through this experience, I learned a lot about what kind of scientific inquiry makes me most excited and matches best with my natural skillset.