Anik De Groof - Personal Profiles

Main Research Fields

One of my current research projects is the analysis of so-called EUV coronal fans: extended, long-lived structures in the solar corona that are heated to roughly 1 million degrees and do not have an obvious counterpart in white-light. The existence of such extended EUV-emitting structures got revealed through the observations of PROBA2/SWAP, the ESA micro-satellite's EUV imager which wide field-of-view provides a unique and continuous view of the EUV corona up to 2-3 solar radii. Contrary to the expectations, around solar maximum, the full SWAP FOV gets filled by these intriguing fans, rooted at the edges of active regions and curving towards the poles. As they persist for multiple Carrington rotations and cannot easily be related to white-light features, they give an interesting view on how the coronal magnetic field is structured between 1.3 and 2-3 solar radii, in the gap between SDO/AIA's FOV and typical lower boundaries of coronagraph FOVs.

My other research interests include waves and plasma motions along coronal loops, incl. coronal rain, and onset and evolution of space weather phenomena like flares and CMEs.