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Jewels of the Sun: Statistical Study of X-Ray Bright Point Energetics at University of St. Andrews

Explore the fascinating world of X-ray bright points (XBPs) through a statistical study at University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Delve into the purpose of the project, findings, and future directions. Discover the mysteries of these celestial gems and their implications for solar research.

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Jewels of the Sun: Statistical Study of X-Ray Bright Point Energetics at University of St. Andrews

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  1. Solar REU 2011 Tom Elsden University of St Andrews, Scotland Jewels of the Sun A Statistical Study of X-Ray Bright Point Energetics

  2. Dr Steve Saar

  3. Dr Paolo Grigis

  4. Talk Outline • Introduction to X-ray bright points • Purpose of the project • What have we learned? • What’s left to do?

  5. Introduction to bright points • What are x-ray bright points (XBPs)? Bright Points!

  6. Basic Facts • What do we know about them? • Lifespan: 2 hours – 2 days • Size : 2-10 x104 km • Found at all latitudes • Temperature :1-2MK • Numbers: 100s – 1000s • Emerging magnetic flux approximately 10000 Missouri’s!

  7. Purpose of study • Perhaps small scale tells us of large scale • These little guys are relatively unstudied • Are all XBP’s simple magnetic bipoles? • What energizes them?

  8. The Solar Corona Image, Miloslav Druckmuller Image, SOHO website

  9. Coronal Temperature • Generally defined > 106 K. • Sharp rise in temperature, we believe to be caused by strong magnetic fields. • We can see the wavelengths used to observe bright • points. Image, Astronomy and Astrophysics

  10. (The magical) Bright Point Finder

  11. In the beginning… • Analysed the magnetic field in the photosphere. • Observed that this was not going to be as simple as first planned. • ‘Simple bipoles’ didn’t quite cover it.

  12. Rogue Bright Points HMI Magnetogram AIA 193Å image

  13. Aims • Bright point temperatures • Surrounding environment effects. • Orientation • Tangential flow in photosphere surrounding magnetic islands* • Magnetic flux vs emission

  14. We see a relatively normal distribution, with a gap to higher temperature BP’s caused by using the 211 filter for higher temperature bright points rather than 171 or 193.

  15. Orientation Joy’s Law & Hale’s law Expect two peaks at 315-360 & 180-225 degrees in top plot. Expect one peak at 315-360 degrees in bottom plot.

  16. Flow map Flow map courtesy Dr Karin Muglach

  17. => Bright points represent emerging magnetic flux!

  18. Future Work • Do more statistics! • Much more can be done with the flow maps, magnetic flux and temperature correlations. • Apply to much more data.

  19. Acknowledgements • Dr Steve Saar • Dr Paolo Grigis • Dr Karin Muglach • NASA grant NNX09AB03G to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. • Thanks SSXG!

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