WEEK TWO








June 8, 2009



This is the begging of the second week   without the IDL session. Now I have the chance to sit down and concentrate on my project.  Today Angela and I went over how to create a PNS file which stands for stands for poles, nulls, and separators. I will be using a program that Dana Loncope created; the program creates a topological structure of a magnetogram using the MCT model.
 
First, select the area on the photosphere from the magnetogram where the flare is being released on the sun.

 This was the image I originally produced but decided the dimensions of the window was to small so I later increased it to 700x700.


   -





 -Next step is to tell the program to create a mask that will
  locate the poles and the strongest array of magnetic flux.
It then breaks the magnetic field into different pieces. 


-After creating a mask, you tell the program to locate the poles
within the mask. The conventional color schemes for the poles
 are black spots are negative and the white spots are positive. 
The command tells the program to place a point source in the
 center of each pole but there is another command that will allow
the program to place a quadrapole in the center( I will be doing this later).


The second to last step is to find the nulls.  Nulls are the location where
magnetic field lines vanish and are between to like sources. 
The null points are symbolized by yellow triangles.








Finally, find the separators connecting each null.
I made the separators red to see them clearly on
the magnetogram. This is the final image :







                                       


I continued to make an overall light curve that spanned from 01:55 to 2:10 UT this enabled me to see the various intervals of energy and to observe when there was a change in the attenuators.

-An attenuator is an electronic device that reduces the amplitude or power of a signal without appreciably distorting its waveform.


I then continued to make three separate light curves that avoided the
attenuator change.  The attenuator periodically changes to check the
level of x ray flux and decides if it should change to higher
or lower attenuator depending on the flux. The avoidance
of the attenuator change gives an accurate account of the
count range.  I created a naming scheme to place
 in my home directory to distinguish my files:


light curves -
lgt_curve_time start_time end_energy intervals_
resolution (secs)_ attenuator.jpg/ps




Time start- 1:55
Time end-1:56:40
Resolution- 2 sec
Energy intervals-5
Attenuator- A1
File name: lgt_curve_155_1564_5_2











Time start- 1:55
Time end-1:56:33
Resolution- 1 sec
Energy intervals-5
Attenuator- A1
File name: lgt_curve_155_15633_5_1_a1








Time start- 1:55
Time end-1:56:30
Resolution- 1 sec
Energy intervals-5
Attenuator- A1
File name: lgt_curve_155_15630_5_1_a1









Time start- 1:55
Time end-1:56:30
Resolution- 1 sec
Energy intervals-5 zoomed into see higher energy bands to see if had enough counts to produce a image
                             50 to 300 keV
Attenuator- A1
  
File name: lgt_curve_155_15630_50-300_1_a1






Time start- 1:56:30
Time end-2:02:45
Resolution-2 sec
Energy intervals-5
Attenuator- A3

 File name: lgt_curve_1:56:30¬_2:02:45_5_2_a3








Time start- 1:56:30
Time end-2:02:45
Resolution-1sec
Energy intervals-5  zoomed
Attenuator- A3
 
File name: lgt_curve_1:56:30¬_2:02:45_x5_1_a1








Time start- 2:03:25
Time end-2:07:45
Resolution-2sec
Energy intervals-5 
Attenuator- A3

 File name: lgt_curve_2:03:25_2:07:45_5_2_a3

















June 9, 2009



Today was the start of our bi weekly solar lectures. Our first
lecture was given by Dana Loncope discussing the sun as star,
which it is. The lecture was very interesting because it incorporated
physics with the concepts that I have learned about the sun.


I struggled with computer issues on my lap top and then on the desktop
 but finally after a couple of hours I was able to use Helios properly.





I made a couple of clearer light curve images.

Time start- 1:55:30
Time end-1:56:30
Resolution-2 sec
Energy intervals-5 
Attenuator- A1
 File name: lgt_curve_1:55:30_1:56:30_5_2_a1








Time start- 2:03:25
Time end-2:07:03
Resolution-2 sec
Energy intervals-5 
Attenuator- A3

 File name: lgt_curve_2:03:25_2:07:03_5_2_a3











From the light curves I was able to clearly see if there were enough
counts to make images of various energy intervals. I then created
 images with smaller time intervals. I also created a naming
scheme for RHESSI images.

File name: hessi_images_start time-end time_energy interval



Time start- 1:57:40
Time end-1:58:30
Energy intervals-6-12
File name: hessi_images_1:57:40-1:58:30_6-12





Time start- 1:57:40
Time end-1:58:30
Energy intervals-12-25

File name: hessi_images_1:57:40-1:58:30_12-25






Time start- 1:57:40
Time end-1:58:30
Energy intervals-25-50

File name: hessi_images_1:57:40-1:58:30_25-50




Time start1:58:30
Time end-1:59:40
Energy intervals-6-12

File name: hessi_images_1:58:30-1:59:40_6-12





Time start1:58:30
Time end-1:59:40
Energy intervals-12-25

File name: hessi_images_1:58:30-1:59:40_12-25





Time start1:58:30
Time end-1:59:40
Energy intervals-25-50


File name: hessi_images_1:58:30-1:59:40_25-50










Time start-1:59:40
Time end-2:00:50
Energy intervals-6-12

File name: hessi_images_1:59:40-2:00:50_6-12





Time start-1:59:40
Time end-2:00:50
Energy intervals-12-25

File name: hessi_images_1:59:40-2:00:50_12-25




Time start-1:59:40
Time end-2:00:50
Energy intervals-25-50

File name: hessi_images_1:59:40-2:00:50_25-50





Time start-2:00:50
Time end-2:02:00
Energy intervals-6-12

File name: hessi_images_2:00:50-2:02:00_6-12






Time start-2:00:50
Time end-2:02:00
Energy intervals-12-25

File name: hessi_images_2:00:50-2:02:00_12-25

Time start-2:00:50
Time end-2:02:00
Energy intervals--25-50

File name: hessi_images_2:00:50-2:02:00_25-50




June 10, 2009


I continued to make images but this time I overlaid the 6-12 keV
clean image with contours 70 and 90 percent of the max from 6-12 keV,
12-25 keV, and 25-50 keV energy levels.
The contours allow you to see the source moving with respect to the different energy intervals. My flare is interesting because
the source point hardly moves making it a source of heat and not a foot
print.  The images speak for themselves. 

  The colors equal:
           - magenta contours-6-12 keV
            -blue contours-12-25 keV
            -black contours-25-50 keV



                           Full view                                       Zoomed view of the source point


      









































 









June 11,2009



 
There was a lecture on instrumentation by Dr. Charles Kanelborg.
 He focused on the various trajectories of satellites and how
EUV imagers operate.  

I started the first of a two part tutorial on OSPEX.
OSPEX stands for Object Spectral Executive it is an
object-oriented interface for X-ray
spectral analysis of solar data.  I will be
using OSPEX to analyze RHESSI data for the class X-1 Flare.
I made spectral graphs starting from 1:58 to 2:02 UT.




I created a new directory and a naming scheme for the
for the X-ray spectral graphs.
Hessi_spectrum_time start-time end_plots.extension





   




















June 12, 2009

Today I started writing a program that would
overlay the hard X ray contours over the topology.
 I spent most of the day writing it and going
through trial and error to get it to run properly.


Luckily, I was interrupted to participate in my
weekly solar flare meeting to give the solar flare
team an update on my week’s work. The meeting
 was successful because I was able to see my fellow
REU colleague’s projects. I was able to compare their
solar flares to mine. A common occurrence in their
 flares was their flares had foot points and in mine  I have a
foot point at the beginning of the rise phase and then it becomes
a thermal source.   My flare is considered a
 thermal source due to the lack of movement, spectroscopy, and the heating from the top of the loop.