Yale Astronomy Postdoctoral Seminar - Samaiyah Farid

Event time: 
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 2:30pm
Speaker: 
Samaiyah Farid
Talk Title: 
Investigating the Acceleration Mechanisms of Solar Coronal Jets
Event description: 

Solar coronal jets are sudden, collimated ejections of plasma that occur when magnetic flux emerges, cancels, or rotates in an ambient field of the opposite polarity. Coronal jets are found across the solar corona, appearing in the quiet sun, active regions, and coronal holes. The properties of the ejected plasma can vary widely, appearing very narrow and pencil-like, to broad and sheet-like, and are often found to rotate, oscillate and/or contain plasmiods. Although it is commonly accepted that magnetic reconnection plays a role in jet formation, the mechanism(s) that drives the ejected plasma is still not well understood. This is further complicated by the wide range of jet topologies, local environments, and magnetic field configurations. In this work we approach this problem two-fold. First, we calculate the plasma parameters of several active region jets, including the plane of sky velocity, the differential emission measure (DEM), and emission-measure-weighted-temperature during the evolution of the jet. We compare these parameters to models of plasma acceleration and find evidence for chromospheric evaporation, a process commonly found in active region flares. Next, we use the Coronal Modeling System (CMS), a Non-Linear Force Free (NLFF) model, to examine the magnetic topology of the jets before and during their eruption. In cases where a filament is observed in EUV, we employ the filament insertion method. We find that in several jets, the NLFF model matches the EUV observations of the jet spire well, allowing us to identify the height of the null region and the upper limits of the toroidal, and poloidal flux. These combined observations give unique insight in the acceleration mechanisms of coronal jets.

 
Location: 
Watson Center A-51 See map
60 Sachem Street
New Haven, CT 06511