I am a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Physics with a minor in Astronomy. My goals for this summer are to learn more about how impulsive SEP events spread, to gain some more experience with research before graduate school, and to learn more about the solar/space physics field before I apply to graduate school.
Impulsive SEP events involve solar energetic particles, which are electrons, protons, and heavier nuclei accelerated into interplanetary space at great energies and speeds by solar flares. Impulsive events typically have a narrow longitudinal spread (20-30 degrees) because the particles travel along interplanetary magnetic field lines well connected to the flare site. However, some events have a large longitudinal spread and the reason is not known. The goal of my project this summer is to use data from three different spacecraft to analyze three different events and then compare particle intensities and spectra to get a better understanding of the longitudinal spread of the events.
To do this I am using Python to analyze data from the Parker Solar Probe, ACE, and STEREO-A, and then analyzing three specific events. These events are April 2-3, 2019, April 4, 2019, and April 20-23, 2019. These events were previously identified in Wiedenbeck et al. (2020). I will specifically be looking at the time-intensity (how much of an ion there is over the duration of an event) of the ions, and the spectra of the ions (how many ions of specific energies there are in the event) which will give us a good indication of how strong the event is and how the particles are being accelerated in the event. Comparing these across the spacecraft will give us a general indication of what spacecraft are seeing the event, and thus how far the spread from the event is.
The above presentations include my biweekly progress reports, midterm presentation, and final presentation. All citations for the information used within these presentations are included on the last slide.
Email: lee47a@mtholyoke.edu, amelia.a.lee21@gmail.com