Rice Solar Physics -- People

The Rice Solar Group
For general inquiries, please email solar@rice.edu
If your inquiry is specific to a particular project, the group members and their current projects are listed below.

Pictured left to right: Aaron Coyner, Antoun Daou, Anne Sandman, Holly Gilbert,
David Alexander, Gary Kilper, Rui Liu, and Lirong Tian

Faculty
David Alexander Office: Herman Brown 358 Phone:(713) 348-3633 Email: dalex@rice.edu	Research Interests: Flares/CMEs: Energetic particle acceleration and transport; flare energetics and dynamics; thermal/non-thermal evolution; CME initiation; CME acceleration and low coronal evolution; filament eruptions and their relation to CMEs; role of sunspot rotation in creating and evolving sigmoid active regions prior to eruption; role of helicity in eruption of CMEs. Active Region Evolution: Role of twist and writhe helicity in the dynamical evolution of sunspots, analysis of sunspot and sunspot group rotation, statistical studies of flare producing magnetic configurations, development of source conditions in the build-up to large Solar Energetic Particle events. Active region simulation and modeling:Simulation of EUV and Soft X-ray emission in active regions, particularly for studying coronal heating and to provide simulated data for application to image reconstruction techniques for STEREO mission Stellar Cycles: Exploration of soft X-ray emission from Sun as a proxy for other active stars and, in particular, what we can learn about the apparent lack of stellar cycles in Sun-like stars. Laboratory astrophysics: Experimentation in laboratory of solar phenomena, particularly dynamic consequences of the interaction of magnetic plasmoids with the ambient medium; application of these results to coronal jets and CMEs. Magnetic reconnection: Observational evidence for presence of reconnection in solar atmospheric phenomena; examination of reconnection rates in the solar atmosphere and comparison with prevailing theories. Solar Sails (solar and magnetospheric missions): Application of novel vantage points attainable by solar sails to explore solar and terrestrial physics domains not easily accessible with current propulsion technologies (e.g. out-of-ecliptic missions).
Markus Aschwanden Adjunct Professor Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab Phone: (650) 424-4001 Email: aschwanden@lmsal.com	Research Interests: Observational Solar Physics: Data analysis and observations of the solar corona from space missions (in hard X-rays, soft X-rays, and EUV wavelengths). and ground-based instruments (in radio wavelengths). STEREO Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI). High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), Yohkoh Hard X-Ray Telescope (HXT) and Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT), COMPTON Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), Hard X-Ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS), Very Large Array (VLA) interferometer, Radio spectrometers (IKARUS, PHOENIX-I, II) or ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Theoretical Solar Physics: Modeling, development of theorical models, and numerical simulations of phenomena in solar and stellar coronae. solar flare models magnetic energy release processes particle acceleration particle dynamics and kinematics wave-particle interactions plasma instabilities radio emission mechanisms, electron-cyclotron maser emission hard X-ray emission dynamics of nonlinear systems avalanche theory, self-organized criticality coronal heating, nanoflaring physical structure of the solar corona and active regions 3-dimensional image reconstruction stereoscopy, tomography, forward-fitting methods
Research Scientist
Holly Gilbert Office: Herman Brown 332 Phone: (713) 348-3504 Email: hgilbert@rice.edu	Research Interests: Prominences: relationship to CMEs; various reconnection scenarios in prominences associated with CMEs; distinguishing between different prominence models (flux rope vs. dip); mass draining (eg., diffusion of neutral material across field lines)and mass motions; measuring prominence mass and studying its importance in CME initiation/dynamics Chromospheric Waves: relationship between coronal (EIT) waves and chromospheric waves (He I 1083 nm); line-of-sight velocity signatures of chromospheric waves; existence of multiple waves in each event; drivers of waves (CMEs vs. flares) Narrow CMEs: differences between narrow and larger CMEs; relationship of narrow CMEs to the underlying neutral lines Current Projects: Studying the variation in mass and composition of different types of prominences by addressing four mechanisms involved in mass loss: draining along field lines, reconnection, cross-field diffusion, and MHD instabilities Determination of the relationship between the nature of a prominence eruption and the pre-eruption mass variation Determining the helium abundance in prominences and its variability over time Studying the relationship between filament kinking and the nature of eruption Studying different mechanisms responsible for filament activation Studying chromospheric wave speeds
Lirong Tian Office: Herman Brown 304 Phone: (713) 348-3409 Email: alicetlr@rice.edu	Research Interests: Magnetic topology of active regions and non-potentiality, Origin of helicity production and injection in the corona, Relationship between magnetic twist and writhe , kink instability, Flare and CME triggering mechanisms, Relationships between small-scale and large-scale magnetic fields. Current Project: Sunspot rotation and Sigmoidal Active Regions Exploring the dynamics of flux-emergence in magnetically-complex solar active regions
Graduate Students
Antoun Daou Office: Herman Brown 328 Phone:(713) 348-3611 Email: agdaou@rice.edu	Research Interests: Solar Flares, Hard X-ray Flux Saturation, Electron Beam Stability, RHESSI studies, Image Reconstruction and Analysis, Magnetic Topology, CME/Flare Relationships, Educational Outreach, Particle transport and acceleration in flare magnetic loops Current Projects: Hard X-ray emission in flares and its relation to magnetic topology Fokker-Planck modeling of hard X-ray emission is flares through investigating electron temporal, spatial, energetic and directional distribution
Rui Liu Office Herman Brown 304 Phone: (713) 348-3409 Email: rliu@rice.edu	Research Interests: Filament eruptions associated with solar flares, and their role in the CME initiation Current Project: CMEs driven by the eruption of a filament and acompanied by a flare
Aaron Coyner Office: Herman Brown 363 Phone: (713) 348-2651 Email: acoyner@rice.edu	Research Interests: Solar Flare Energy Release, UV and Hard X-ray Observations, Interacting Active Regions, TRACE and RHESSI Data Analysis Current Projects: Temporal and spatial relationships between UV and HXR emission in solar flares Relating hard X-ray spatial distributions to magnetic separator locations Investigating relationships between the Solar magnetic configuration and observed SEP characteristics
Anne Sandman Email: asandman@rice.edu	Research Interests: Coronal Magnetic Fields, 3-D Morphology of Active Regions, Coronal Heating, and Simluation of Active Regions and Full-Sun Coronae. Current Projects: 3-D visualizations of coronal magnetic fields
Gary Kilper Office: Herman Brown 344 Phone: (713) 348-3514 Email: garyk@rice.edu	Research Interests: Composition of solar prominences of all degrees, Mechanisms of mass loss, Variations of mass and relation to initiation of CMEs, Correlation of prominences and properties of resultant CMEs, Analysis of data from MLSO,SOHO, TRACE, Hinode, and STEREO Current Projects: Variability and dynamics of mass composition in solar prominences
Undergraduate Students
Caitlin Goodrich Email: goodrch@rice.edu	Research Interests:
Yannick Jimbuem Email: yaneekjy@gmail.com	Research Interests: Prominence variability and its relation to eruption Current Projects: Utilizing 3D stereoscopic data from STEREO in conjunction with Doppler velocity and H-alpha/He 10830 intensity measurements from MLSO to study the early dynamic evolution of prominences and how that is related to CMEs.
Daniel Young Email: dey3872@rice.edu	Research Interests: Solar phenomena associated with CMEs, such as prominences and chromospheric waves; Non-erupting prominences Current Projects: Extracting quantitative velocity information using the 7-filter CHIP (He I 1083 nm) telescope located at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory Creating 3D reconstructions of prominences using STEREO