In this Feb. 1 talk, Solar Scientist and Associate Director听Tom Woods听will discuss our understanding of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, based on more than two decades of observations of the sun as a star with LASP-built instruments aboard NASA satellites.
Solar flares, as well as their often-eruptive companions called coronal mass ejections (CME), have been studied for decades. While most of these studies involve imaging the sun, observations of the sun as a star (full-disk irradiance) have also revealed interesting results through exploring the spectral variability during flare events. These sun-as-a-star flare measurements have been made over the past two solar cycles with LASP-built instruments aboard the NASA UARS, TIMED, SORCE, SDO听and MinXSS satellites.
Some of the new results from such studies include understanding the flare variability over all wavelengths鈥攆rom the energetic X-rays to the visible,听discovering and classifying different flare phases,听using coronal dimming measurements to predict CME properties of mass and velocity听and better understanding the coronal heating processes.
Who: Tom Woods
What: "Surprising Solar Flares: Studying the Sun as a Star"
When: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Where: East Campus,听LSTB, room 299
Cost: FREE and open to public
The talk is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the LASP Space Technology Building (LSTB), room 299, on East Campus. The doors open at 7 p.m. Parking and admission are free.
An affiliate of听, LASP is a collaboration among aerospace-related departments, institutes, centers, government labs听and industry partners. It was founded in 1948, a decade before NASA, and is听the world鈥檚 only research institute to have sent instruments to all eight planets and Pluto.
For more information on Wood's upcoming talk, please email the LASP Office of Communications and Outreach.
