Mysteries of solar phenomena

Concentration paper.1982 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (page 18)

Evolutionary cycles of light

1982 Spring.The mysteries of reflected and refracted solar light phenomena integrated with geometry and the technology of the 20th century are the major focus of the work in this thesis. It is concerned with the metaphysical and personal aspects of universal cyclic solar light used in ancient ritual and medieval theology, integrated with the contemporary external-oriented and impersonal use of solar energy. The objective was to explore ancient, medieval and contemporary differences regarding evolutionary cycles of solar light. For example, the Indians of Peru found order in the universe through observation of solar light cycles. Through veneration of the sun as god in personal internal-oriented ritual celebrating the beauty of light and giver of fertility and harvest, they explained their relationship to the cosmos. The meaning of the sun and its light manifest itself in the gold icons symbolic of the beauty of solar light. Medieval humanity in the 12th and 13th centuries further explored the organization of state and theology in crystal and stone Gothic cathedrals. Opening the architecture to the sun with windows exemplary of the feudal state and Christian religion, Romanesque shadows were banished from somber interiors. The God-given sun as divine light, shining through crystal combined with stone exemplified the medieval spirit of bright and dark, fierce passion and stillness, life and death. During the 20th century, scientists, astronomers and physicists gathered solar light for energy purposes without regard for its splendor and beauty, while natural light cycles integrated with art were ignored during post-medieval times until late 20th century. Based on the perception of light, Dewain Valentine, Larry Bell, James Turrell, Nancy Holt and Eric Orr have explored the content of light with sculptural form beginning with the l 970's. The sculptures in this thesis bring together the inherent order, harmony and intellect of geometric shape with the purity of solar light, presenting stability in a 20th century world of daily violence, economic crises and finite energy sources. Via a concentration of solar energy in reflected and refracted images from Plexiglas planes onto receptive surfaces in sculptural form, it is a search for the origin of personal energies. On another level, the works ask the viewer to examine her /his own source of strength and appreciation. Perhaps inquiry of their consciousness will lead them to a discovery of a new relationship to the universe and a world beyond time and space

Hinode Calibration for Precise Image Co-alignment between SOT and XRT (November 2006 -- April 2007)

To understand the physical mechanisms for activity and heating in the solar atmosphere, the magnetic coupling from the photosphere to the corona is an important piece of information from the Hinode observations, and therefore precise positional alignment is required among the data acquired by different telescopes. The Hinode spacecraft and its onboard telescopes were developed to allow us to investigate magnetic coupling with co-alignment accuracy better than 1 arcsec. Using the Mercury transit observed on 8 November 2006 and co-alignment measurements regularly performed on a weekly basis, we have determined the information necessary for precise image co-alignment and have confirmed that co-alignment better than 1 arcsec can be realized between Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) and X-Ray Telescope (XRT) with our baseline co-alignment method. This paper presents results from the calibration for precise co-alignment of CCD images from SOT and XRT.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Hinode Special issue

Pre-Columbian ear spools and their relationship to the sun

Art history research paper.1982 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (pages 22-23)

Slipping Magnetic Reconnection in Coronal Loops

International audienceMagnetic reconnection of solar coronal loops is the main process that causes solar flares and possibly coronal heating. In the standard model, magnetic field lines break and reconnect instantaneously at places where the field mapping is discontinuous. However, another mode may operate where the magnetic field mapping is continuous but shows steep gradients: The field lines may slip across each other. Soft x-ray observations of fast bidirectional motions of coronal loops, observed by the Hinode spacecraft, support the existence of this slipping magnetic reconnection regime in the Sun's corona. This basic process should be considered when interpreting reconnection, both on the Sun and in laboratory-based plasma experiments

Hinode EUV Study of Jets in the Sun’s South Polar Corona

International audienc

Hinode EUV Study of Jets in the Sun's South Polar Corona

International audienc

Hinode EUV Study of Jets in the Sun's South Polar Corona

International audienc

Hinode Observations of the Onset Stage of a Solar Filament Eruption

We used Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) filtergraph (FG) Stokes-V magnetogram observations, to study the early onset of a solar eruption that includes an erupting filament that we observe in TRACE EUV images. The filament undergoes a slow rise for at least 20min prior to its fast eruption and strong soft X-ray (SXR) flaring; such slow rises have been previously reported, and the new Hinode data elucidate the physical processes occurring during this period. XRT images show that during the slow-rise phase, an SXR sigmoid forms from apparent reconnection low in the sheared core field traced by the filament, and there is a low-level intensity peak in both EUV and SXRs during the slow rise. MDI and SOT FG Stokes-V magnetograms show that the pre-emption filament is along a neutral line between opposing-polarity enhanced network cells, and the SOT magnetograms show that these opposing fields are flowing together and canceling for at least six hours prior to eruption. From the MDI data we measured the canceling network fields to be approx. 40 G, and we estimated that approx. 10(exp 19)Mx of flux canceled during the five hours prior to eruption; this is only approx.5% of the total flux spanned by the eruption and flare, but apparently its tether-cutting cancellation was enough to destabilize the sigmoid field holding the filament and resulted in that field's eruption