Collaborative Research: Radioastronomical Remote Sensing of the Solar Corona

这个合作研究小组将研究发生在日冕中的等离子体物理过程，研究人员的动机是日冕提供了实验室实验无法获得的物理制度。研究人员将专注于使用甚大阵列(VLA)射电望远镜及其升级(统称为扩展甚大阵列，EVLA)对日冕和内太阳风进行遥感测量，并从日冕等离子体物理的角度解释这些观测结果。该团队的主要观测技术将是测量被日冕掩蔽的背景射电源的法拉第旋转。该团队将使用EVLA进行法拉第自转测量，该EVLA将在2到5个太阳半径的高度上比之前获得的日冕更深。这种方法将提供关于这个内部区域的日冕磁场和磁流体(MHD)湍流的特性的信息。然后，该团队将使用日冕的MHD模型来为用VLA和EVLA测量的相同视线路径创建合成法拉第旋转测量，以便比较结果并测试他们模型的准确性与实际观测结果。爱荷华州的首席首席调查员(PI)将指导参与该项目的爱荷华大学本科生和研究生，波士顿的Co-PI将为哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的这些学生提供研究经验。该负责人还将通过东部爱荷华州天文台和学习中心开展公众宣传，并与业余天文学团体开展协作，特别是与雪松急流城的雪松业余天文学家和位于爱荷华州的Quad City的天文俱乐部的协作。

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.