My name is Allison Snyder, and I am a rising junior at Mount Holyoke
College. I have loved both physics and astronomy since I grew out
of my volcano phase at age 5. I love diving into research
and working on new ideas that challenge my understanding of the
world. Discovering something new or creating a program that
works is always worthwile. In my free time,
I like to go on hikes in the woods, read epic fantasy novels,
and craft conlangs. My cat, Tutu (yes, named after the ballet skirt),
wishes I spent more time sleeping at home and snuggling with her.
This summer (2024), I'm working with Dr. Jiong Qiu to explore the 3D
structure of post-reconnection flare loops and how the magnetic
structure, specifically the shear, compares to the potential field by
tracing thousands of loops.
Past Research
Fall 2020- Spring 2021: I Investigated the effects of adding
mycorrhizae in Martian regolith on Lactuca sativa growth. This
independent research project was pressented at the 2021 Synopsys
Science Fair.
Fall 2021- Spring 2022: I measured the Zeeman Splitting on
Alpha Centauri B
in order to track how magnetic fields changed over the course of its
stellar cycle. This independent research project was presented at
the 2022 Synopsys Science Fair and won an honorary mention.
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024: I assisted Professor Smith at Mount
Holyoke College in developing a model for bacterial movement to
analyze how collective motion relates to mixing.
Contact me at: snyde23a@mtholyoke.edu or allisonsnyder03@gmail.com
Research Project
Allison Snyder, Dr. Joing Qiu
THE SUN
My research project this summer was to investigate solar flares.
Solar flares are caused by magnetic reconnection where magnetic
field lines reconnected releasing energy observed as solar flares.
When the loops reconnect, they have been observed to do so at an
angle relative to the polarity inversion line (PIL) that divides
the positive and negative magnetic flux in the Sun's photosphere.
The complementary angle between the flare loop and the PIL is known
as the shear. Past observations of solar flares have observed a trend
of strong-to-weak shear as the flares progress. However, there have
been few quatitative studies of how each loop behaves over time and
space. The goal of my summer research was to get a quantitative
analysis of many loops' shear in a flare.
My work analysed an X 1.0 flare that occured on October 28th,
2021 as it was observed by the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). I
used the OCCULT program to trace linear structures, such as
the flare loops that were seen in SDO's AIA images. Then the angles
of these loops with the PIL were meansured over time in three
wavelengths. The AIA wavelengths used were 94A, 335A, and 171A
because these bandpasses were not saturated and covered a variety of
temperatures. The shear was analysed as a function of time from
over 25,000 loops.
Finally, the traced loops were compared to magnetic models.
A model of a flare is unhelpful if it cannot accurately capture the
behavior of a flare. The traced flare loops were compared to a
potential field model and several linear force free models. However,
none of the models captured the behavior of all of the loops even
though some of the linear force free models appeared to match some
of the loops. This suggests that a more advanced magnetic model must
be developed to capture the behavior of loops.
References
Warren, H. P., Crump, N. A., Ugarte-Urra, I.,
Sun, X., Aschwanden, M. J., & Wiegelmann, T. (2018). Toward a quantitative comparison of magnetic field
extrapolations and observed coronal loops. The Astrophysics Journal, 860(1) 46.
Qiu, J., Alaoui, M., Antiochos, S. K., Dahlin, J. T., Swisdak,
M., Drake, J. F., Robison, A., DeVore, C. R., & Uritsky, V. M.
(2023). The role of magnetic shear in reconnection-driven flare
energy release. The Astrophysics Journal, 955(1) 34.
Aschwanden, M. J. (2010). A code for automated tracing of coronal
loops approaching visual perception. Solar Physics, 262(2) 399-423.