Forward Modeling

Developing techniques to produce advanced 3D models and visualizations of solar active regions from magnetic field extrapolations, field-aligned hydrodynamic models, and a sophisticated treatment of the key atomic processes that govern the radiation spectrum. The visualizations are derived from the 3D models by using the technical specifications of the fleet of observing instruments. These predicted observations can be directly compared with real observations to determine how well the underlying physical models reproduce the observed patterns and dynamics of the active region plasma. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Nicki Viall of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Active region visualization
One of the products of this work “Simulating Million-degree Plasma in the Solar Corona” (by Will Barnes) won second place in the Natural Sciences Scientific Image Contest.