About the Author | Overview | Theory | Lecture | Poster | Data | Animations | Acknowledgements
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About the Author | Overview | Theory | Lecture | Poster | Data | Animations | Acknowledgements |
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William Simpson is a student at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He graduated with an MPhys. in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in June 2010. In June 2008, Mr. Simpson began a project with The Solar Group, which he continued for his Masters disseration (2009-10). This website presents some of the results of his early work.
Mr. Simpson has also been involved in Solar research in the Physics Dept. at Montana State University. Since graduation, he has been a member of the Quantum Optics group at St. Andrews and actively involved in studying Casimir forces.
Please note that none of the data or articles currently available for viewing on this site should be regarded as finalised, and some of the material may still be in draft form. Please do not circulate any of the material found on this site at this time.
Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are two types of solar phenomena that occur in intense magnetic regions of our Sun. Both involve the fast release of magnetic energy and produce large-scale perturbations throughout the solar atmosphere. The energy release mechanism generally believed to be responsible for both of these phenomena is magnetic reconnection.
Certain mathematical models have been proposed for flares and CMEs that require the presence of a null point in the solar atmosphere. Unfortunately, given current observation techniques, it is almost impossible to observe these coronal nulls directly. An alternative approach is to combine magnetic observations and 3D modelling methods to extrapolate the coronal magnetic field from the field of the photosphere of an active region. We can then determine its magnetic topology, in particular the locations of the null points. [More]
A number of technical papers are presented here explaining in some detail the theory I have relied on in this project.
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A poster is also available for this project, and a lecture was delivered at the Royal Society of Edinburgh Robert Cormack Bequest Meeting.
This project has been concerned with an analysis of the magnetic field of active region AR0486 during [period]. I have tried to determine the behaviour of the magnetic flux and energy over this time, and locate and classify magnetic null points. The information I have generated to date is available for viewing here. [More]
| Snap / | Time / | Null count |
| 0. | 10:00:03.23 | ( 21 ) | 1. | 10:01:03.23 | ( 19 ) | 2. | 10:02:03.23 | ( 15 ) | 3. | 10:03:03.23 | ( 22 ) | 4. | 10:04:03.23 | ( 15 ) | |||||
| 5. | 10:05:03.23 | ( 17 ) | 6. | 10:06:03.23 | ( 26 ) | 7. | 10:07:03.23 | ( 21 ) | 8. | 10:08:03.23 | ( 13 ) | 9. | 10:09:03.23 | ( 18 ) | |||||
| 10. | 10:10:03.23 | ( 19 ) | 11. | 10:11:03.23 | ( 21 ) | 12. | 10:12:03.23 | ( 18 ) | 13. | 10:13:03.23 | ( 30 ) | 14. | 10:15:03.23 | ( 23 ) | |||||
| 15. | 10:16:03.23 | ( 22 ) | 16. | 10:17:03.23 | ( 18 ) | 17. | 10:18:03.23 | ( 22 ) | 18. | 10:19:03.23 | ( 22 ) | 19. | 10:20:03.23 | ( 27 ) | |||||
| 20. | 10:21:03.23 | ( 17 ) | 21. | 10:22:03.23 | ( 16 ) | 22. | 10:23:03.23 | ( 20 ) | 23. | 10:24:03.23 | ( 18 ) | 24. | 10:25:03.23 | ( 16 ) | |||||
| 25. | 10:26:03.23 | ( 23 ) | 26. | 10:27:03.23 | ( 21 ) | 27. | 10:28:03.23 | ( 13 ) | 28. | 10:29:03.23 | ( 16 ) | 29. | 10:30:03.23 | ( 18 ) | |||||
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A number of animations referenced in the report are available here for online viewing:
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The following nulls were successfully tracked:
With my thanks to The Royal Society of Edinburgh for awarding me a Cormack Vacation Research Scholarship. Many thanks also to the Solar and Magnetospheric Theory Group in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews for additional financial assistance during this research project. Finally, my thanks to S. Regnier, my supervisor.
