SHINE: Improving Understanding of Solar Corona Dynamics Using Laboratory Simulations of Coronal Loops

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Principal Investigator (PI) will study solar coronal phenomena using laboratory experiments in a plasma chamber. The chamber will create plasma regimes relevant to the solar environment, and these plasma configurations will undergo complex morphological changes that depend on imposed boundary conditions, such as the normal magnetic field, current density, and plasma mass flux. By controlling these boundary conditions, the PI will create plasma loops that simulate actual phenomena on the Sun, such as single loops, a single loop interacting with an externally produced magnetic field, or two loops undergoing localized three dimensional magnetic reconnection. The PI's apparatus uses advanced diagnostics, including high speed digital imaging, spectroscopy, laser interferometry, multi-element magnetic probes, and a pinhole x-ray camera, to observe and record various plasma states and physical parameters during his experiments. The PI will compare his measurements to the predictions of theoretical solar coronal models in order to improve, modify, or challenge them. This is possible because his experimental plasmas are governed by similar physics to the solar corona case, and in particular, to the physics of plasma upflows from photospheric footpoints and of the collimation of plasma-filled, twisted magnetic flux tubes like those seen on the Sun. The PI will disseminate his research results by communicating directly with the solar physics community via talks, publications, and participation in the annual workshops. His experiments may provide new interpretations of recent and unexplained spacecraft observations, and provide rich educational material through colorful graphics and movies derived from his plasma chamber's diagnostic measurements. The PI has a record of mentorship of young women in physics, and plans to continue that here by increasing the number of female PhD scientists trained in plasma physics through these experiments.