3D Magnetic And Thermal Structure Of Active Regions Of The Sun

The Sun is the best astrophysical laboratory for obtaining clues to magnetic field structure and activity because the magnetic field can be studied across time frames and physical sizes needed to begin understanding both the complex structure and dynamics of the magnetic field. This project aims to quantify magnetism in the solar corona using focused efforts to study the solar magnetic field. The investigators will create realistic 3-Dimensional (3D) modeling tools to study the basic science problem of measuring the coronal magnetic field structure in solar active regions (AR) and reconstructing AR heating structure. This new modeling will augment the investigators' existing capabilities for AR modeling, and use all of the advanced modeling tools and computer codes they have already developed. The project will make new scientific products such as maps of the coronal magnetic field, and 3D models of individual ARs built using input from observations. This project supports the mission of the National Science Foundation by promoting our understanding of magnetic field structure and activity at the Sun. The research group has established a summer internship research program for high school students in the Union County Vocational Magnet School having concentration on Science, where the tools developed under this project will be heavily used.This project leverages an extensive, quantitative use of radio data available from a variety of modern radio interferometry arrays and combines these diagnostics with more traditional EUV and optical data as well as coronal modeling approaches based on these data (in particular, nonlinear force-free field modeling). The investigators will employ new science capabilities of the radio imaging spectroscopy data from solar active regions, augmented by advanced theory and 3D modeling of gyroresonance (GR) and free-free emission. The GR process gives radio emission its ability to provide direct measurements in the corona of magnetic field strength and direction, and so provides the key to understanding the basic mechanisms underlying all of solar activity. Interpretation of the observations relies on construction of comprehensive models for the atmosphere, including both plasma and magnetic field models, which are then matched to the data through forward fitting. These theory and modeling efforts are needed in order to exploit the powerful new radio data coming online now from a number of radio instruments including the VLA, Expanded OVSA (EOVSA), and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).This award reflects National Science Foundation 's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.