3. Exploring Elemental Composition Across the Solar Atmospheric Layers

ESA supervisor: Andy To
Collaborator(s): Miho Janvier

Site: ESTEC

The solar atmosphere is a complex system primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of metals. These elemental abundances serve as key tracers of physical processes throughout the solar atmosphere and in the solar wind. The First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect governs changes in these abundances, with low-FIP elements often enhanced in active regions and slow solar wind sources.

Current theories suggest that abundance enhancement begins in the lower solar atmosphere and propagates outward. However, compositional variability across atmospheric layers remains very poorly understood. The Solar Orbiter mission, launched in 2020, provides unprecedented insights into these processes with its suite of instruments capable of tracing compositions from the Sun to the solar wind.

This internship project, to be conducted at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA/ESTEC), aims to investigate and understand the link between spatially resolved composition measurements observed by two space missions for the first time: JAXA/ESA's Hinode and ESA's Solar Orbiter.  

Project Objectives:

• Analyze and compare elemental abundance data from Hinode/EIS and Solar Orbiter/SPICE, using a new composition diagnostic designed for a future mission.
• Quantify the correlation of elemental composition across different solar atmospheric layers and structures.
   

Project duration: 6 months.

Desirable expertise or programming language:

• English advanced knowledge.
• Python advanced knowledge.
• Solar Physics basic knowledge.

To apply for this project please fill in an online application form through the following link.