Magnetodydrodynamic waves in the solar atmosphere

About the Project

State-of-the-art high-resolution ground- and spaced-based telescopes routinely observe magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves that are ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere.

MHD waves and oscillations are very important as they have dominant contribution to the local plasma heating in the solar atmosphere, that is one of the key and unsolved puzzles of modern plasma-astrophysics. Another key aspect of solar atmospheric MHD wave research is that these waves are often used to diagnose the magnetised and very dynamic solar plasma.

This project is to further the currently available MHD wave theory in inhomogeneous, expanding waveguides that have steady flows. Wave propagation and instability theory will be developed and applied to a number of solar structures from pores, magnetic bright points to solar jets, called spicules.

The study will involve mathematical modelling complemented with observational data analysis using high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution solar telescopes, e.g. data from SST and DKIST. The developed MHD wave theory will be justified by validating the obtained analytical results with these observational data, or theory refuted if necessary.

This project requires excellent skills in mathematical modelling complemented with potential interest in taking observations by either ground- or space-based telescope. Further, the project also likely requires collaboration with colleagues from the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC), a cross-Faculty research entity at the University of Sheffield (UK).

Funding Notes

The primary funding source is self-funding, however, it other grant funding may arise such applications will also be considered.

References

For further reading see e.g.,
De Pontieu, Erdelyi and James, Nature 430, pages 536–539 (2004)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02749
Wedemeyer-Bohm et al., Nature, 486, pp. 505-508 (2012)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11202
Liu et al., Nature Communications, 10, Article number: 3504 (2019)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11495-0
Stangalini et al., Nature Astronomy, 5, p. 691-696 (2021)