STFC Consolidated Grant for the Solar Physics Group at Northumbria University

STFC 为诺森比亚大学太阳物理小组提供综合拨款

• 批准号: ST/T000384/1
• 负责人: James McLaughlin
• 金额: $ 52.25万
• 依托单位: Northumbria University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FT000384%2F1
• 关键词: STFC; Consolidated; Grant; Solar; Physics

The Solar Physics Group at Northumbria University has a long-term research programme to understand the physics of our closest star, the Sun, and other solar-like stars. The Sun displays a number of fascinating and dynamic phenomena such as powerful solar flares and giant, planet-sized concentrations of magnetic fields (sunspots). It also provides a unique window that permits us to examine in detail how stars behave. The Sun is made of a plasma (ionised gas) threaded by a strong magnetic field. Such magnetised plasmas are common throughout the Universe (e.g. active galaxy nuclei, nebula, interstellar medium), hence our research also advances the understanding across multiple research communities. Furthermore, we are also keen to determine how the Sun influences the near-Earth environment. The Sun is the powerhouse of our solar system and its daily variability can have profound consequences for Earth. Space Weather is the name given to the impact of events (e.g. solar flares, coronal mass ejections) from the Sun on our technologically-advanced society. This impact is both beautiful (e.g. Northern lights) and potentially extremely detrimental (e.g. damaging satellites, increasing radiation that is harmful to aircrew and astronauts). Thus, in order to understand and address the risks associated with Space Weather, we need to understand its origins and drivers. Our work aims to address one of STFC's Science Challenges, namely "How do stars and planetary systems develop and how do they support the existence of life?", as well as key questions in the STFC Roadmap for Solar System Research, e.g. "What are the structures, dynamics and energetics of the Sun?" and "What are the fundamental processes at work in the Solar System?". This proposal focuses on different aspects of these current challenges and questions, with a natural synergy across the projects that contributes towards our long-term goal of a complete and detailed understanding of the Sun. Here, we are interested in discovering answers to problems such as: How do giant vortices (magnetic solar tornadoes) and magnetic waves lead to the heating of the outer envelope of the Sun's atmosphere to millions of degrees, and accelerate streams of charged particles away from the Sun (the solar wind) at speeds of a million miles per hour? How is energy stored and released in magnetic fields, leading to powerful solar flares that give off intense radiation (X-rays, gamma rays) and accelerate particles to relativistic speeds? How can we predict when solar flares occur and so improve our ability to forecast them? To address these fundamental, yet unanswered, questions, our research makes use of advanced mathematical techniques and cutting-edge computer simulations to create models of the Sun based on magnetohydrodynamics. We combine this theoretical effort with the highest-quality data of the Sun available from state-of-the-art solar instruments (e.g. NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory; DKI Solar Telescope) incorporating information from across the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. visible, EUV, X-ray) and analysing this with modern methods drawn from statistics and machine learning.

诺森比亚大学的太阳物理小组有一个长期研究计划，以了解距离我们最近的恒星太阳和其他类似太阳的恒星的物理学。太阳显示了许多令人着迷的动态现象，如强大的太阳耀斑和行星大小的巨大磁场(太阳黑子)集中。它还提供了一个独特的窗口，允许我们详细检查恒星的行为。太阳是由强磁场贯穿的等离子体(电离气体)构成的。这样的磁化等离子体在整个宇宙中都很常见(例如活动星系核、星云、星际介质)，因此我们的研究也促进了跨多个研究社区的理解。此外，我们还热衷于确定太阳如何影响近地环境。太阳是我们太阳系的动力源，它的每日变化可能会对地球产生深远的影响。空间天气是指来自太阳的事件(如太阳耀斑、日冕物质抛射)对我们这个技术先进的社会的影响。这种影响既是美丽的(例如北极光)，也可能是极其有害的(例如破坏卫星，增加对机组人员和宇航员有害的辐射)。因此，为了了解和解决与空间天气有关的风险，我们需要了解其起源和驱动因素。我们的工作旨在解决STFC的一个科学挑战，即“恒星和行星系统是如何发展的，它们如何支持生命的存在？”以及STFC太阳系研究路线图中的关键问题，例如太阳的结构、动力学和能量学是什么？以及“太阳系中的基本过程是什么？”这项提案侧重于这些当前挑战和问题的不同方面，与项目之间的自然协同作用有助于我们实现对太阳的全面和详细了解的长期目标。在这里，我们感兴趣的是发现以下问题的答案：巨型涡旋(磁性太阳龙卷风)和磁波如何导致太阳大气层外层加热到数百万度，并以每小时100万英里的速度加速远离太阳的带电粒子流(太阳风)？能量是如何在磁场中储存和释放的，从而导致产生强烈的太阳耀斑，发出强烈的辐射(X射线、伽马射线)，并将粒子加速到相对论速度？我们如何预测太阳耀斑发生的时间，从而提高我们预测它们的能力？为了解决这些基本但尚未回答的问题，我们的研究利用先进的数学技术和尖端的计算机模拟来创建基于磁流体力学的太阳模型。我们将这一理论成果与从最先进的太阳仪器(例如NASA的太阳动力学天文台；DKI太阳望远镜)获得的最高质量的太阳数据结合在一起，纳入了来自电磁光谱(例如可见光、极紫外光、X射线)的信息，并利用来自统计学和机器学习的现代方法进行了分析。

项目成果

Probing the Physics of the Solar Atmosphere with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE). I. Coronal Heating

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac4222
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: B. De Pontieu;P. Testa;J. Martínez-Sykora;P. Antolin;K. Karampelas;V. Hansteen;M. Rempel;M. Cheung;F. Reale;S. Danilovic;P. Pagano;V. Polito;I. De Moortel;D. Nóbrega-Siverio;T. Van Doorsselaere;A. Petralia;M. Asgari-Targhi;P. Boerner;M. Carlsson;G. Chintzoglou;A. Daw;E. DeLuca;L. Golub;Takuma Matsumoto;I. Ugarte-Urra;S. McIntosh

Reconnection nanojets in the solar corona

• DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1199-8
• 发表时间: 2020-09-21
• 期刊: NATURE ASTRONOMY
• 影响因子: 14.1
• 作者: Antolin, Patrick;Pagano, Paolo;Reale, Fabio
• 通讯作者: Reale, Fabio

Novel Data Analysis Techniques in Coronal Seismology

• DOI: 10.1007/s11214-021-00869-w
• 发表时间: 2021-12
• 期刊: Space Science Reviews
• 影响因子: 10.3
• 作者: S. Anfinogentov;P. Antolin;A. Inglis;D. Kolotkov;E. Kupriyanova;J. McLaughlin;G. Nisticò;D. Pascoe-D.-Pa

An overall view of temperature oscillations in the solar chromosphere with ALMA

• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0174
• 发表时间: 2020-10
• 期刊: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A
• 作者: S. Jafarzadeh;S. Wedemeyer;B. Fleck;M. Stangalini;D. Jess;R. Morton;M. Szydlarski;V. Henriques;X. Zhu;T. Wiegelmann;J. C. Guevara Gómez;S. Grant;B. Chen;K. Reardon;S. White

Probing the physics of the solar atmosphere with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE): I. Coronal Heating

使用多缝太阳探测器 (MUSE) 探测太阳大气的物理特性：I. 日冕加热

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2106.15584
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: De Pontieu B