Montana State University Solar Physics REU 2021
Adviser: Dr. Jiong Qiu
[My attempt at putting a photo of myself didn't work...but you can see what I look like in some of the group photos!]
Hello everyone! I'm a rising senior at American University in D.C., majoring in physics with a minor in mathematics. I like going to coffee shops and exploring the city, and recently I've been getting more into hiking. My favorite physics course so far has been modern physics, and my favorite math course has been linear algebra.
Coronal ejecta are important in studying the sun's magnetic field; however, to do so, the 3D trajectory of ejecta must be known. Although the combination of viewing angles of several spacecraft can accomplish this, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) can do this on its own. Due to its highly elliptical orbit, the PSP moves fast enough at the perihelion of its orbit to track observed features. The PSP observes coronal ejecta via its white light imager, WISPR, which currently looks to the right of the sun from around 20 solar radii. Previous work has been done with the PSP to track and fit trajectories of coronal mass ejections under the assumption of radial motion at constant velocity, and this summer, we will be modifying the existing fitting procedure to fit the trajectory of streamers, which can then be used to put streamers in the context of the sun's global magnetic field.