Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

Predicting Solar Sigmoid Lifetimes Based On Shearing In The Photosphere, Austen Stone

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

This project’s purpose was to study how the speed at which the plasma in the photosphere of the sun affects the lifetime and shape of a solar sigmoid. Solar sigmoids are S-shaped, twisted magnetic structures that are due to the shifting magnetic field lines emerging from the surface of the sun. The photosphere is the visible layer of the sun’s surface and is made up of cells of plasma that are highly conductive and influenced by the magnetic field of the sun. Sigmoids form when shearing (a lateral shift between two objects in directions opposite each other) occurs in the …