This award provides funds to support a 12-month research visit by Dr. Mukul R. Kundu, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, for collaboration with Dr. Takashi Sakurai and other scientists in the Solar Physics Division, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. This research will provide access of the visitor to the excellent data collected by several Japanese telescopes, namely the soft X-ray and hard X-ray telescopes on the Yohkoh satellite and the Nobeyama radioheliograph operating at 17 and 34 GHz. Together with other pertinent ground-based or space-based data, these data sets will be used for studies of the solar corona. In this collaboration, the U.S. visitor will provide his expertise in solar coronal research while the Japanese scientists will provide theoretical expertise in computing extrapolated coronal magnetic fields for sunspot atmosphere modeling, as well as expertise in accessing Yohkoh X-ray data and ground based optical data.
The specific activities designed to take advantage of the Japanese data cover a broad range of coronal phenomena, including (1) X-ray emission above sunspot umbrae; (2) radio emission associated with coronal X-ray jets; (3) the evolution of active regions in terms of flare productivity; (4) millimeter and microwave brightening observed in the polar coronal holes; and (5) the microwave and meterwave counterparts of the erupting polar coronal plumes. The project will be mutually beneficial because of the complementary expertise of the collaborators which will contribute to the two-way exchanges of ideas, skills, and techniques planned for this research. This project is supported under the Science Fellowship Program between the National Science Foundation and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. ***
