MSU SOLAR PHYSICS GROUP
The MSU solar physics group is engaged in undergraduate and graduate education, public outreach, and solar research supported by NASA, NSF, and AFOSR. Our research includes observation, data analysis, theory, and instrument development. In both research and graduate education, we collaborate closely with the solar group at the Lockheed-Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, and the Solar & Stellar X-ray Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. We are actively involved in:
  • Analysis and operations of the X-ray Telescope for the Japan/US/UK Hinode mission. The XRT is being constructed by the Solar & Stellar X-ray Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Since Hinode launch in the summer of 2006, MSU faculty and students are participating in the day-to-day operations of the XRT instrument, and analysis of the science data.

  • Design calibrations and observations planning for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. SDO will be NASA's flagship for the Living With a Star program. With eight channels operating over a range of wavelengths, AIA will be the most complex ultraviolet telescope ever built. Following launch in 2008, MSU faculty and students will participate in the calibration and analysis of the scientific data from SDO.

  • Construction of space experiments for flight on rockets and satellites, using the facilities of MSU's Space Science and Engineering Laboratory. The project closest to our hearts is a rocket payload called the Multi-Order Solar EUV Spectrograph. MOSES, built under the leadership of Prof. Charles Kankelborg and flown in February 2006, gets an unbelievable wealth of full-Sun EUV imaging and spectroscopy information, just waiting to be picked apart by a curious physicist.

  • The day-to-day operation and scientific utilization of the NASA Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) mission which was launched early in 1998. This battery of 4 ultraviolet telescopes provides spectacular new observations of the thin and dynamic interface region at the base of the corona. This region is also the source of much of the ionizing radiation that determines the properties of the upper atmosphere of the earth, such as the ionosphere and the ozone layer.

  • The Max Millennium program, a key element of NASA's Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) mission, which was launched in early 2002. RHESSI's primary mission is to explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy release in solar flares. Ancillary ground and space based observations from other observatories and spacecraft, and collaborative analysis of the combined data, are imperative for the determination of the thermodynamic and magnetic context of the X-ray and gamma-ray events that RHESSI observes.

  • Observational studies of solar magnetic fields, using the facilities of the National Solar Observatory and Mees Solar Observatory. Our special interest in studying solar magnetism is magnetic helicity, which generates beautiful structures in the Sun's corona and tells us about flows and turbulence deep inside the Sun, where we cannot see to make observations directly. Solar magnetism is closely linked to space weather, since there is strong evidence that the twisted fields that cause these beautiful structures are implicated in the occurence of Coronal Mass Ejections.

  • The scientific utilization and archiving of the results from the Japan/US/UK Yohkoh mission for studies of high-energy solar physics, which was launched in 1991 and operated until December 2001. This satellite carried a solar X-ray telescope, prepared under the leadership of Prof. Loren Acton, designed to study high energy processes on the Sun. The Yohkoh Legacy data Archive is a project initiated and maintained by members of our solar group, and is currently the only source of the best corrected data set from Yohkoh. It also contains a rich amount of technical/scientific information with a user-friendly interface. Although Yohkoh ceased to exist (reentered the atmosphere in September 2004), this archive is vigorously alive!

  • Theoretical and computational studies of solar magnetic fields, addressing questions like:
    • How does the coronal magnetic field become stressed & why does it suddenly release its stress as a flare or microflare? (Perhaps discontinuities, like "fractures", form in the magnetic field.)
    • What identifies the part of the magnetic field where stress will accumulate? (Where will it "fracture"?)
    • How does the magnetic field generated inside the Sun rise to the surface? It seems to form slender strands (flux tubes)--why?
    • Can details of the rise process tell us anything about the way magnetic field is generated inside?

  • The Yohkoh Public Outreach Project (YPOP), funded by NASA to create high quality public access to the Yohkoh/SXT data and other solar data via the Internet and educational products for the K-12 community. These products, presently under development with our partners at Lockheed-Martin, utilize all available technology and will include interactive lessons geared at increasing public awareness of science, with a strong emphasis on astronomy and the space sciences.

  • If you have any comments, please contact www@solar.physics.montana.edu