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  • Sean Quinn - Student Profile

Sean Quinn - Student Profile

Sean QuinnPhD student

Current research project

The Search for Upper Atmospheric Responses to Sunquakes

My area of research involves solar flares and sunquakes (SQs), which are sometimes by-products of solar flares. SQs are caused when chromospheric plasma is heated by high energy particles accelerated toward the Sun after a solar flare. This chromospheric plasma can impact the photosphere, which in turn creates a SQ. We recently discovered that these SQs can create a response in the upper atmosphere of the Sun, sometimes as high as the mid-chromosphere, using the Ca II 8542Å channel of the Crisp Imaging SpectroPolarimeter (CRISP) instrument in the ground-based observatory, the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST). This response was created by the largest solar flare of solar cycle 24. Currently, I am looking at old solar flares that have a reported photospheric SQ, to determine if they also have an upper-atmospheric response, using the space-based Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), using the AIA 1600Å & 1700Å wavelength channels, which means I have more than 60 events to observe. Once I have analysed all these flares, I hope to determine any correlation between the flares and presence of an upper-atmosphere response.

Biography

I was born and bred in Belfast, and had always intended on studying at Queen’s. In a year out between school and university I decided I wanted to study Physics, having always enjoyed the topic in school, and enjoyed astronomy in my spare time. After starting at Queen’s in 2013, and the successful completion of my first 2 years I decided to stay and continue my degree as an MSci. On completion of my MSci project, which was a Solar Physics project, I got a real feel for research and decided to apply for one of the Solar Physics projects that ARC was offering. I was accepted, and my PhD began in October 2017. I am now in the third year of my PhD, and I have had many experiences I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I attended an international collaborative workshop in Bern, Switzerland, have presented my work at 2 national conferences, as well as an international conference in Bangalore, India. I have also had some of my work published in the Astrophysical Journal.
 
Research interests
  • Solar Physics

  • Sunquakes

  • Solar Flares

  • Chromospheric Dynamics

 

 

PhD Research Students
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