Collaborative Research: Radioastronomical Remote Sensing of the Solar Corona

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This collaborative research team will study plasma physics processes occuring in the solar corona, and the investigators are motivated by the fact that the corona provides physical regimes which are inaccessible to laboratory experiments. The researchers will concentrate on making remote sensing measurements of the corona and inner solar wind using the Very Large Array (VLA) radiotelescope, as well as its upgrades (collectively called the Expanded Very Large Array, or EVLA), and interpreting those observations in terms of coronal plasma physics. The team's primary observational technique will be the measurement of Faraday Rotation of background radio sources that are occulted by the solar corona. The team will make Faraday Rotation measurements using the EVLA that will be deeper in the corona than previously obtained, at altitudes of 2 to 5 solar radii. This approach will yield information on the properties of the coronal magnetic field and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in this inner region. The team will then use MHD models of the corona to create synthetic Faraday Rotation measures for the same line-of-sight paths measured with the VLA and EVLA, in order to compare results and test of the accuracy of their models against actual observations.The lead Principal Investigator (PI) in Iowa will mentor University of Iowa undergraduate and graduate students participating in this project, and the Co-PI in Boston will offer research experiences for these students at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The lead PI will also engage in public outreach through the Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center (EIOLC) and collaborations with amateur astronomy groups, particularly the Cedar Amateur Astronomers of Cedar Rapids and the Astronomy Club of the Quad Cities, both in Iowa.