Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Small-Scale Dynamics Of Photospheric Magnetic Activities And Their Chromospheric Responses, Jiasheng Wang

Dissertations

The evolution of photospheric magnetic fields is considered as the fundamental source of forming atmospheric structures and triggering most solar activities, including flares and mass ejections on various scales (CMEs, jets, etc.). With the implementation of high-resolution observational instruments, small-scale details of magnetic features are recognized that can provide important information regarding the evolution in active regions and the connection between photospheric magnetic reconnection and jet-like ejections in the quiet Sun. This research takes advantage of the exceptionally high-resolution measurements of vector magnetic field and imaging observations by the Goode Solar Telescope, and UV/EUV imaging observations from space-based instruments. The …

A Spectroscopic And Photometric Survey Of The W4 Hii Region And Its Young Stellar Population, Matt Wentzel-Long

Dissertations

The W4 HII region is home to a large number of O and B-type stars as well as the young open cluster IC 1805. OB-type produce intense photoionizing radiation and stellar winds that can induce star formation in surrounding molecular clouds and sometimes carve out large regions of decreased particle density called superbubbles. During the star formation process, young stellar objects (YSOs) are initially surrounded by circumstellar disks made of gas and dust which naturally dissipate after several million years. The dissipation of the disk is thought to occur for a variety of reasons, including photoevaporation by the encompassed protostar …

Machine Learning For Scientific Data Mining And Solar Eruption Prediction, Hao Liu

Dissertations

This dissertation explores new machine learning techniques and adapts them to mine scientific data, specifically data from solar physics and space weather studies. The dissertation tackles three important problems in heliophysics: solar flare prediction, coronal mass ejection (CME) prediction and Stokes inversion.

First, the dissertation presents a long short-term memory (LSTM) network for predicting whether an active region (AR) would produce a certain class of solar flare within the next 24 hours. The essence of this approach is to model data samples in an AR as time series and use LSTMs to capture temporal information of the data samples. The …

Flare Emission Observed In High Resolution And Comparison With Numerical Modeling, Nengyi Huang

Dissertations

As one of the most intense activities on the solar surface, flares have been extensively observed and studied ever since the first report. The standard model of solar flares has been established and commonly accepted. However, many limitations from the researching tools have left some of the problems unsolved or controversial. For example, the density of electrons in the corona is lower than it is required to activate the observed emission in HXR, and the mechanism that these electron beams can penetrate down to lower chromosphere is unclear. Many theoretical scenarios were suggested, and more observations had been in need. …

Accumulation Of Polar Vorticity On Giant Planets: Towards A Three-Dimensional Theory, Shawn R. Brueshaber

Dissertations

My research investigates the polar atmospheric dynamics of the giant planets: Jupiter and Saturn (gas giants), and Uranus and Neptune (ice giants). I conduct my research modifying and applying the Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate global circulation code to model the polar regions of the four giant planets.

The motivation behind my research is to uncover the reason why giant planet polar atmospheric dynamics differ. Jupiter features multiple circumpolar cyclones arranged in geometrical configurations, whereas Saturn features a single pole-centered cyclone. Uranus and Neptune also appear to have single pole-centered cyclones, albeit, larger than those on Saturn. …