The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	High resolution solar observations in the context of space weather prediction
Author:	Yang, Guo
View Online:	njit-etd2004-037 (xvii, 123 pages ~ 11.0 MB pdf)
Department:	Federated Physics Department of NJIT and Rutgers-Newark
Degree:	Doctor of Philosophy
Program:	Applied Physics
Document Type:	Dissertation
Advisory Committee:	Wang, Haimin (Committee co-chair) Denker, Carsten J. (Committee co-chair) Goode, Philip R. (Committee member) Gary, Dale E. (Committee member) Wu, Zhen (Committee member)
Date:	2004-01
Keywords:	Solar Space weather Speckle masking method Penumbra Filament Coronal mass ejection
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Space weather has a great impact on the Earth and human life. It is important to study and monitor active regions on the solar surface and ultimately to predict space weather based on the Sun's activity. In this study, a system that uses the full power of speckle masking imaging by parallel processing to obtain high-spatial resolution images of the solar surface in near real-time has been developed and built. The application of this system greatly improves the ability to monitor the evolution of solar active regions and to predict the adverse effects of space weather. The data obtained by this system have also been used to study fine structures on the solar surface and their effects on the upper solar atmosphere. A solar active region has been studied using high resolution data obtained by speckle masking imaging. Evolution of a pore in an active region presented. Formation of a rudimentary penumbra is studied. The effects of the change of the magnetic fields on the upper level atmosphere is discussed. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) have a great impact on space weather. To study the relationship between CMEs and filament disappearance, a list of 431 filament and prominence disappearance events has been compiled. Comparison of this list with CME data obtained by satellite has shown that most filament disappearances seem to have no corresponding CME events. Even for the limb events, only thirty percent of filament disappearances are associated with CMEs. A CME event that was observed on March 20, 2000 has been studied in detail. This event did not show the three-parts structure of typical CMEs. The kinematical and morphological properties of this event were examined.