TYPE III RADIO BURSTS FROM NANOFLARES

SHERRY CHHABRA WILL WORK WITH DR. JAMES A. KLIMCHUK TO STUDY TYPE III RADIO BURSTS FROM NANOFLARES. NANOFLARES ARE BELIEVED TO HEAT THE CORONA TO ITS MULTI-MILLION DEGREE TEMPERATURES AND AN OPEN QUESTION IS WHETHER THEY ACCELERATE A SUBSET OF CORONAL PARTICLES TO HIGH ENERGY AS DO REGULAR FLARES. RADIO EMISSION THAT DRIFTS IN FREQUENCY (TYPE III BURSTS) IS A CHARACTERISTIC SIGNATURE OF ENERGETIC PARTICLE BEAMS. A COMPLICATION IN DETECTING SUCH EMISSION FROM NANOFLARES IS THAT ENORMOUS NUMBERS OF TYPE III BURSTS WOULD BE OBSERVED TOGETHER. FORTUNATELY DR. KLIMCHUK AND HIS COLLEAGUE DR. NICHOLEEN VIALL HAVE DEVELOPED AN AUTOMATED TIME-LAG TECHNIQUE FOR STUDYING COOLING PLASMA FROM NANOFLARES THAT SHOULD BE ABLE TO DISENTANGLE THE OVERLAPPING TYPE III BURSTS. IT IS BASED ON CORRELATING THE LIGHT CURVES (INTENSITY VERSUS TIME) IN DIFFERENT RADIO FREQUENCIES. MS. CHHABRA WILL APPLY THE TECHNIQUE TO DATA FROM THE SUN. SHE WILL ALSO DEVELOP A SIMPLE MODEL OF THE EXPECTED RADIO EMISSION FROM INDIVIDUAL NANOFLARES TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE VARIATION IN DENSITY ALONG THE MAGNETIC LOOPS IN WHICH THE PARTICLE BEAMS PROPAGATE. SHE WILL COMBINE THE EMISSION FROM MANY MODEL NANOFLARES AND APPLY THE TIME-LAG TECHNIQUE TO THE RESULTING SYNTHETIC DATA IN ORDER TO EVALUATE ITS EFFECTIVENESS AND 'CALIBRATE' THE RESULTS. THIS WORK WILL FORM THE BASIS OF HER PHD RESEARCH AT NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.