The Sun and the Solar System Commons^™

Understanding The Role Of Magnetic Field Evolution In The Initiation And Development Of Solar Eruptions, Nian Liu

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to understand the initiation and evolution of solar eruptions. The essential science questions to answer include: What is the role of magnetohydro dynamic (MHD) instabilities and magnetic reconnection in triggering and driving eruptions? What are the role of Kink Instability (KI) and Torus Instability (TI) in determining the successful and failed eruptions? What is the thermal behavior of flare precursors in the initiation stage of solar eruptions? Finally, how does the corona magnetic field respond to the flare eruptions? The dissertation mainly includes the following studies.

First, this dissertation presents a multi-instrument study of the two precursor …

Understanding Martian Salts And Their Implications For Liquid Water, Rachel Slank

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is one of the key components for life as we know it. The existence of salts on Mars has been a large contributing factor to the possibility of habitability, due to their ability to allow liquid water to remain stable at colder temperatures. Salts, including perchlorates, chlorates, and chlorides, have been detected by multiple landers, rovers, and orbiters, and are now believed to be ubiquitous on Mars. One of the pathways to liquid brine solutions is through deliquescence. Deliquescence is the transition from a solid salt crystal into an aqueous solution when exposed to a humid atmosphere. This research …

A Comparison Of Relict And Active Terrestrial Patterned Ground As An Analog For Mars, John Paul Knightly Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Patterned ground is a ubiquitous landform in periglacial regions of Earth and is also present across the mid to high latitudes of Mars. The association of terrestrial patterned ground to the presence of subsurface water ice in the form of permafrost that develops a seasonal ‘wet’ active layer during the summer thaw prompted further investigation of patterned ground on Mars. The Phoenix spacecraft was sent to the surface of the north polar plains of Mars to investigate an area of patterned ground where water ice was predicted to occur. The confirmation of subsurface water ice at the Phoenix landing site …

Hydroponically Growing A Holistic Superfood Diet For Mars Exploration, Marianna Pezzella, Ruben A. Rosa Polonia

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

In “Hydroponically Growing a Holistic Superfood Diet for Mars Exploration,” Project H.O.M.E. members conducted an experiment to help determine ways to provide future astronauts with a complete, balanced diet on a planet that does not receive as much sunlight as Earth. Sending massive amounts of food into space is incredibly expensive, takes up valuable spacecraft area, and is, overall, not a feasible way to provide astronauts with sustenance. Project H.O.M.E. has thus developed a hydroponic system to evaluate the growth and yield of various superfoods - including Moringa Oleifera, goji berries, and kale - under simulated Mars lighting conditions. Data …

Determining The Sources Of The Zodiacal Cloud Using Relative Velocities Of Dust Particles From High-Resolution Spectroscopy, Philip B. Mann Iii

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

The zodiacal cloud is the Solar System debris disk in which the Earth’s orbit is located. The dust that comprises the cloud comes from cometary, asteroidal, interstellar, and other source populations, but the relative ratios have proven hard to determine. However, asteroidal and cometary particles typically have different types of orbits, with asteroidal particles having more circular and lower inclination orbits than cometary particles. Accordingly, the relative velocities of these groups of particles with respect to Earth are also different, and measurements of these relative velocities can help distinguish between the sources. The spectrum of the zodiacal light contains solar …

Mms Observations Of The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability And Associated Ion Scale Waves, Rachel C. Rice

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The detailed mechanisms coupling the solar wind to Earth's magnetosphere are not yet fully understood. Solar wind plasma is heated non-adiabatically as it penetrates the magnetosphere, and this process must span scale sizes. Reconnection alone is not able to account for the observed heating; other mechanisms must be at work. One potential process is the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). The KHI is a convective instability which operates at the fluid scale in plasmas, but is capable of driving secondary process at smaller scales. Previous work has shown evidence of magnetic reconnection, various ion scale wave modes, mode conversion, and turbulence associated …

Untangling The Solar Wind And Magnetospheric Drivers Of The Radiation Belt Electrons, Simon Wing, Jay R. Johnson, Drew L. Turner, Aleksandr Y. Ukhorskiy, Alexander J. Boyd

Faculty Publications

Plain Language Summary

Many solar wind parameters correlate with one another, which complicates the causal-effect studies of solar wind driving of the magnetosphere. We use conditional mutual information, which is part of information theory, to untangle and isolate the effect of individual solar wind and magnetospheric drivers of the radiation belt electrons. For example, the solar wind density negatively correlates with electron phase space density (PSD) (average energy ∼1.6 MeV) with the response time lag of 15 hr. This has been attributed to the electron loss process such as magnetopause shadowing. The time lag suggests the time scale for this …

The Solar Eclipse Of 1869 As Seen In Illinois, Indiana, And Kentucky, Trishyan Anthony

Research in the Capitol

The Solar Eclipse of August 7th, 1869, was the first recorded total eclipse of the Sun to pass over the United States. The altitude of the eclipse varied depending on the longitude of the viewer. Wanting to know what was the public reaction of this solar eclipse gathering newspaper articles of the time really showed a window to what they were seeing and feeling at that time, and leading up to the day. Following the eclipse through some of the Midwest down to Kentucky showed differing results, as it had got later in the day of viewing. Though there was …

Venus Mountain Waves In The Upper Atmosphere Simulated By A Time-Invariant Linear Full-Wave Spectral Model, Michael P. Hickey, Richard L. Walterscheid, Thomas Navarro, Gerald Schubert

Publications

A 2-D spectral full-wave model is described that simulates the generation and propagation of mountain waves over idealized topography in Venus' atmosphere. Modeled temperature perturbations are compared with the Akatsuki observations. Lower atmosphere eddy diffusivity and stability play a major role in the upward propagation of gravity waves from their mountain sources. Two local times (LT) are considered. For LT = 11 h the waves are blocked by a critical level near 100 km altitude, while for LT = 16 h the waves propagate into the thermosphere. As a result of the small scale height in the Venus thermosphere, for …

Coupling Between Alfvén Wave And Kelvin–Helmholtz Waves In The Low Latitude Boundary Layer, Eun-Hwa Kim, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability of magnetohydrodynamic surface waves at the low latitude boundary layer is examined using both an eigenfrequency analysis and a time-dependent wave simulation. The analysis includes the effects of sheared flow and Alfvén velocity gradient. When the magnetosheath flows are perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field direction, unstable KH waves that propagate obliquely to the sheared flow direction occur at the sheared flow surface when the Alfvén Mach number is higher than an instability threshold. Including a shear transition layer between the magnetosphere and magnetosheath leads to secondary KH waves (driven by the sheared flow) that are …

The Meaning Of Dark, Light And Shadows: Inferences In Art, Materiality And Cultural Practices, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

Our visual awareness relies on light acting on the eye to perceive materiality and colour. Medieval thought wrestled to articulate and comprehend its nature. The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, included his descriptions to define light and make comparisons so as to differentiate between light and shadow. His focus was on the illumination of surfaces from the perspective of a painter, seeing shadows as ‘the diminution of light by the intervention of an opaque body’ and ‘the counterpart of luminous rays’. In his mind, a shadow ‘stood between light and darkness’, with darkness being ‘the absence of light’. …

Characterizing The Particle Size Distribution In Saturn's Rings Using Cassini Uvis Stellar Occultation Data, Stephanie Eckert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn revolutionized modern understanding of the planet's vast and intricate ring system. We use stellar occultation data from Cassini's UVIS High Speed Photometer (HSP) to characterize the particle size distribution in the rings with two methods. First, we discern the sizes of the smallest particles at ring edges by forward-modeling observed diffraction signatures which appear as spikes in the signal, the shape and amplitude of which depends on the size and abundance of the smallest particles. We then probe the upper end of the size distribution using occultation statistics. Although the distribution of photon counts in …

Surface Morphologies In A Mars-Analog Ca-Sulfate Salar, High Andes, Northern Chile, Nancy W. Hinman, Michael H. Hofmann, Kimberly Warren-Rhodes, Michael S. Phillips, Nora Noffke, Nathalie A. Cabrol, Guillermo Chong Diaz, Cecilia Demergasso, Cinthya Tebes-Cayo, Oscar Cabestro, Janice L. Bishop, Virginia C. Gulick, David Summers, Pablo Sobron, Michael Mcinenly, Jeffrey Moersch, Constanza Rodriguez, Philippe Sarazzin, Kevin L. Rhodes, Camila Javiera Riffo Contreras, David Wettergreen, Victor Parro

OES Faculty Publications

Salar de Pajonales, a Ca-sulfate salt flat in the Chilean High Andes, showcases the type of polyextreme environment recognized as one of the best terrestrial analogs for early Mars because of its aridity, high solar irradiance, salinity, and oxidation. The surface of the salar represents a natural climate-transition experiment where contemporary lagoons transition into infrequently inundated areas, salt crusts, and lastly dry exposed paleoterraces. These surface features represent different evolutionary stages in the transition from previously wetter climatic conditions to much drier conditions today. These same stages closely mirror the climate transition on Mars from a wetter early Noachian to …

Development Of A Fluxgate Magnetometer Model, Eleonora Olsmats

Honors Theses and Capstones

As a part of the UNH SWFO-L1 mission to monitor space weather and the sun’s behavior, the fluxgate magnetometer is an important component to measure external magnetic fields. The basic principle of a fluxgate magnetometer is to detect changes in the ambient magnetic field by inducing a magnetic field in a ferromagnetic material via a drive winding. Each magnetometer is unique due to the ferromagnetic properties of the core material which can be seen in the hysteresis loop which is a relationship between the magnetic field strength (H) and the induced magnetic field (B). Measuring the hysteresis of a fluxgate …

Investigating Signs Of Orbital Decay In The Tres-1 Exoplanetary System, Amanda F. Wester

Honors Theses and Capstones

Transit observations of exoplanetary systems can be used to investigate orbital decay. TrES-1b is an exoplanet hypothesized to be experiencing orbital decay due to observed transit timing variations (TTVs) [12]. Numerous transits must be observed to establish a long term pattern to conclusively determine if the planet’s orbit is decaying. Measurements were made using the UNH Observatory where 2 transits were observed of the TrES-1b transiting system on February 27, 2022 and March 5, 2022. A CCD camera was used to image the transit and capture calibration images. The software AstroImageJ (AIJ) was used to calibrate the images and perform …

The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability From The Perspective Of Hybrid Simulations, Peter A. Delamere, Nathan P. Barnes, Xuanye Ma, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The flow shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is ubiquitous in planetary magnetospheres. At Earth these surface waves are important along the dawn and dusk flanks of the magnetopause boundary while at Jupiter and Saturn the entire dayside magnetopause boundary can exhibit KH activity due to corotational flows in the magnetosphere. Kelvin-Helmholtz waves can be a major ingredient in the so-called viscous-like interaction with the solar wind. In this paper, we review the KH instability from the perspective of hybrid (kinetic ions, fluid electrons) simulations. Many of the simulations are based on parameters typically found at Saturn’s magnetopause boundary, but the results …

Newgrange Skyscape In Stellarium, Frank Prendergast

Articles

Newgrange Skyscape in Stellarium is a new customised landscape planetarium model giving the user the unique ability to interrogate the dynamic sky above the Boyne Valley on any date of interest during the hours of daylight or darkness. Archaeological, astronomical and topographical points of interest are labelled in the model and visible even during the hours of darkness. These are summarily described in a short gazetteer appended at the end of the instruction document to encourage further exploration of the wonderful heritage found in the Boyne Valley and beyond.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aGPsVGBXkY4

Watch on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/493351576

Analysis Of Titan's Fluvial Features Using Numerical Modeling, Jeshurun Horton

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

River channels have been observed near the Huygens probe landing site on the surface of Titan, along with evidence of rounded water ice boulders transported through fluid flow. Evidence near the landing site suggests active flow of liquid methane, which has motivated the study of the effects of sediment load and channel sizes on Titan’s fluvial features. A numerical model is used to determine the viscosity, flow velocity, and critical boulder transport diameter based on channel size, slope, and a range of sediment concentrations. This model achieves two ends: first, observed boulder diameters are used to determine the ideal channel …

The Poissonian Origin Of Power Laws In Solar Flare Waiting Time Distributions, Markus J. Aschwanden, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

In this study we aim for a deeper understanding of the power-law slope, α, of waiting time distributions. Statistically independent events with linear behavior can be characterized by binomial, Gaussian, exponential, or Poissonian size distribution functions. In contrast, physical processes with nonlinear behavior exhibit spatiotemporal coherence (or memory) and "fat tails" in their size distributions that fit power-law-like functions, as a consequence of the time variability of the mean event rate, as demonstrated by means of Bayesian block decomposition in the work of Wheatland et al. In this study we conduct numerical simulations of waiting time distributions N( …

Global 3d Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations Of Proto-Jupiter’S Convective Envelope, Zhaohuan Zhu, Yan-Fei Jiang, Hans Baehr, Andrew N. Youdin, Philip J. Armitage, Rebecca G. Martin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The core accretion model of giant planet formation has been challenged by the discovery of recycling flows between the planetary envelope and the disc that can slow or stall envelope accretion. We carry out 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations with an updated opacity compilation to model the proto-Jupiter’s envelope. To isolate the 3D effects of convection and recycling, we simulate both isolated spherical envelopes and envelopes embedded in discs. The envelopes are heated at given rates to achieve steady states, enabling comparisons with 1D models. We vary envelope properties to obtain both radiative and convective solutions. Using a passive scalar, we …

The Solar Memory From Hours To Decades, Markus J. Aschwanden, Jay R. Johnson

Faculty Publications

Waiting-time distributions allow us to distinguish at least three different types of dynamical systems, including (i) linear random processes (with no memory); (ii) nonlinear, avalanche-type, nonstationary Poisson processes (with memory during the exponential growth of the avalanche rise time); and (iii) chaotic systems in the state of a nonlinear limit cycle (with memory during the oscillatory phase). We describe the temporal evolution of the flare rate λ(t) ∝ t p with a polynomial function, which allows us to distinguish linear (p ≈ 1) from nonlinear (p  2) events. The power-law slopes α of the observed waiting times (with full …

Mosaic: A Satellite Constellation To Enable Groundbreaking Mars Climate System Science And Prepare For Human Exploration, Robert J. Lillis, David Mitchell, Luca Montabone, Nicholas Heavens, Tanya Harrison, Cassie Stuurman, Et. Al.

Publications

The Martian climate system has been revealed to rival the complexity of Earth's. Over the last 20 yr, a fragmented and incomplete picture has emerged of its structure and variability; we remain largely ignorant of many of the physical processes driving matter and energy flow between and within Mars' diverse climate domains. Mars Orbiters for Surface, Atmosphere, and Ionosphere Connections (MOSAIC) is a constellation of ten platforms focused on understanding these climate connections, with orbits and instruments tailored to observe the Martian climate system from three complementary perspectives. First, low-circular near-polar Sun-synchronous orbits (a large mothership and three smallsats spaced …

Gw Ori: Circumtriple Rings And Planets, Jeremy L. Smallwood, Rebecca Nealon, Cheng Chen, Rebecca G. Martin, Jiaqing Bi, Ruobing Dong, Christophe Pinte

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

GW Ori is a hierarchical triple star system with a misaligned circumtriple protoplanetary disc. Recent Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations have identified three dust rings with a prominent gap at 100 au and misalignments between each of the rings. A break in the gas disc may be driven by the torque from either the triple star system or a planet that is massive enough to carve a gap in the disc. Once the disc is broken, the rings nodally precess on different time-scales and become misaligned. We investigate the origins of the dust rings by means of N-body integrations and …

Terrestrial Planet Formation In A Circumbinary Disc Around A Coplanar Binary, Anna C. Childs, Rebecca G. Martin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

With N-body simulations, we model terrestrial circumbinary planet (CBP) formation with an initial surface density profile motivated by hydrodynamic circumbinary gas disc simulations. The binary plays an important role in shaping the initial distribution of bodies. After the gas disc has dissipated, the torque from the binary speeds up the planet formation process by promoting body-body interactions but also drives the ejection of planet building material from the system at an early time. Fewer but more massive planets form around a close binary compared to a single star system. A sufficiently wide or eccentric binary can prohibit terrestrial planet formation. …

Radiation Effects On Space Solar Cells At Various Earth And Jupiter Orbital Altitudes, Naazneen Rana

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Solar cells are used as the primary power source for earth-orbiting satellites and as a primary/secondary power source for various missions within the solar system. However, high energy particles from the sun, planetary magnetospheres, and the galaxy can affect the performance and life expectancy of the space solar cell and associated power systems. As the interests for interplanetary travel and the exploration of planets within our solar system increase, the need to understand a device’s performance within a particular planet’s environment is necessary. Therefore, this study will analyze the performance of space solar cells, particularly the SolAero IMM-α, at various …

An Experimental Study Of Evaporites On Titan: Implications For Lake Composition And Future Missions, Ellen Czaplinski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Titan is the only other planetary body in the solar system with liquid on the surface. With a surface temperature and pressure of 89 – 94 K and 1.5 bar (N2), respectively, Titan’s lakes are comprised of liquid hydrocarbons, predominantly methane and ethane. Over time, Titan’s lakes may evaporate, leaving behind residual deposits (evaporites). The evaporation processes and composition of the evaporites is poorly understood. I address these outstanding questions by experimentally investigating the physical and spectral properties of evaporites at Titan surface conditions using an experimental chamber.

Chapter 1 addresses the formation of ethylene evaporites. Ethylene evaporites form more …

The Effects Of Water Ice Sublimation On Slope Failures Of Icy Regolith, Christopher Cox, Madison Weinberg, Trisha Joseph

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The frost line in a planetary system represents the distance from the central star inside of which conditions are too warm for ice to form, while beyond this line it will be stable. When an icy object passes that line heading toward the Sun it will begin to sublimate and outgas, potentially causing mass loss and surface changes. One example is surface failures, which can lead to material being removed from the object. Evidence of this has been seen on cometary surfaces, where surfaces often show structures that appear to have suffered various mechanical failures like cracking and landslides. By …

Analysis Of The Primary Volatile Compositions In The Oort Cloud And Jupiter-Family Comets Towards The Goal Of Understanding Their Origin And Diversity, Mohammad Saki

Dissertations

Knowledge of the initial conditions present in the early solar nebula is required to understand the evolution and its current volatile content. Comets were some of the first objects to accrete in the solar nebula. They are among the most pristine (primitive) remnants of the solar system formation, and their present-day volatile composition likely reflects the composition and conditions where (and when) they formed. Therefore, they are fossils of the solar system formation. High-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy is a valuable tool for sampling the parent volatile (i.e., ices subliming directly from the nucleus) composition of comets via analysis of fluorescence emission …

A Consistent Model Of Terrestrial Planet Magnetospheres And Rotations In Our Solar System, Fred J. Cadieu

Publications and Research

The Sun comprises 99.9% of the solar system mass so it is expected that Sun terrestrial planet interactions can influence the motion as well as the rotation of the terrestrial planets.Gravity affects the planet orbital motions while the changing magnetic fields of the Sun can influence the planet rotations. Planets that manifest a magnetic field dominate any weaker magnetic fields from the Sun, but the rotation of terrestrial planets without a magnetic field interacts with the changing Sun’s field dependent on the electrical conductivity of the core region. It is determined that the average planet density becomes a useful quantity …

Late Amazonian Wind Regimes And Landscape Evolution In Northern Meridiani Planum, Mars, Thomas Stritch

Geology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Aeolian process have dominated the lower latitudes of Mars for billions of years. Aeolian landforms can act as records of current and past climates and landscape evolution processes. The etched deposits of Meridiani Planum, a vast suite of layered bedrock extending from southwest Arabia Terra to Schiaparelli crater, have long been noted to have been eroded by aeolian processes. However, little detailed work on the aeolian landforms of Meridiani Planum beyond the Opportunity rover landing site has been done. In this study, I examine wind streaks, aeolian bedforms (including dunes and large ripples), and yardangs in a valley about 370 …