Dr. Eduard Kontar is elected as ESPD president

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We congratulate A&A’s Dr. Eduard Kontar. He was elected president of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) during the elections at the European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM) in Budapest last week.

Dr. Eduard Kontar is also currently president of CESRA (Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers).

Well done from the group!

The ESPD is a division of the European Physical Society that represents and provides a forum for scientists interested in the physics of the Sun.

Eduard Kontar

Poster prize for Paul Wright

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Paul Wright (right) receiving the 2017 AAS Solar Physics Division Student Poster Prize at the 48th AAS/SPD meeting in Portland, OR.

Paul Wright (right) receiving the 2017 AAS Solar Physics Division Student Poster Prize at the 48th AAS/SPD meeting in Portland, OR.

We’re delighted that Paul Wright has been awarded the 2017 American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division Student Poster Prize at the 48th AAS/SPD meeting in Portland, OR. His poster was on “Microflare Heating of an Active Region Observed with NuSTAR, Hinode/XRT, and SDO/AIA”, and was based on a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal (including Glasgow co-authors Iain Hannah and Hugh Hudson).

Congratulations Paul!

Paul (and Stephen Brown) received an SPD Studentship to attend the meeting.

Early Career Prize to Dr. Natasha Jeffrey

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natasha_jeffrey_pic
We’re delighted that the EPS Solar Physics Division chose to award its first-ever 2017 ESPD Early Career Prize to Dr. Natasha Jeffrey “for significant contributions to the physics of solar flares and for inspiring outreach activities”.

Well done Natasha!

The 2017 ESPD Prizes will be presented in the course of the 15th European Solar Physics Meeting, during an award ceremony specifically designed for this event.

John Armstrong

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PhD StudentIMG_7fhlui

I am working with Prof. Lyndsay Fletcher on the implementation of machine learning algorithms in solar observations. My main focus is on flare spectropolarimetry and how machine learning techniques can aid the data analysis process for carrying out chromospheric magnetic field diagnostics in a flaring atmosphere.

I have mainly applied supervised and unsupervised deep learning models to different solar aspects:

1. Deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for solar feature detection

2. Deep learning for correcting for atmospheric seeing in solar flare observations.

3. Invertible neural network (INN) for the inversion of solar flare line profiles.

A C.V. can be found here.

Github

 

Refereed Publications

  1. “Fast Solar Image Classification Using Deep Learning and its Importance for Automation in Solar Physics”, J.A. Armstrong & L. Fletcher, Solar Physics, vol. 294:80, (2019). [doi] arXiv
  2. “RADYNVERSION: Learning to Invert a Solar Flare Atmosphere with Invertible Neural Networks”, C.M.J. Osborne, J.A. Armstrong & L. Fletcher, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 873 (2), (2019). [doi] arXiv

Other Publications

  1. “Deep learning for the Sun”, J.A. Armstrong, C.M.J. Osborne & L. Fletcher, Astronomy & Geophysics, vol. 61, issue 3, June 2020, Pages 3.34–3.39 [doi]

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email: j.armstrong.2@research.gla.ac.uk

Tel: +44 141 330 2960

Thomas Murat

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PhD Student

t.murat.1@research.gla.ac.uk

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email:

Tel: +44 141 330 2960
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Nicolina Chrysaphi

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chrysaphiPhD Student

I conduct research focused on the observation and analysis of radio emissions from the Sun, under the supervision of Professor Eduard P. Kontar.  I am particularly interested in the physical mechanisms defining the morphological characteristics of Type II radio bursts which are excited by shock waves associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).  I also study the radio-wave scattering effects in the solar corona to better understand the observed radio emissions.  I have utilised data from several instruments including SDO/AIA, SOHO/LASCO, GOES/XRS, and LOFAR.

Refereed Publications:

  1. Chrysaphi, N., Kontar, E. P., Holman, G. D., and Temmer, M. (2018). CME-driven Shock and Type II Solar Radio Burst Band Splitting. ApJ, 868, 79. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aae9e5. [arXiv]
  2. Kontar, E. P., Chen, X., Chrysaphi, N., Jeffrey, N. L. S., et al. (2019). Anisotropic Radio-wave Scattering and the Interpretation of Solar Radio Emission Observations. ApJ, 884, 112. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab40bb. [arXiv]
  3. Chrysaphi, N., Reid, H. A. S., and Kontar, E. P. (2020). First Observation of a Type II Solar Radio Burst Transitioning Between a Stationary and Drifting State. ApJ, 893, 115. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab80c1. [arXiv]
  4. Kuznetsov, A. A., Chrysaphi, N., Kontar, E. P., and Motorina, G. (2020). Radio Echo in the Turbulent Corona and Simulations of Solar Drift-pair Radio Bursts. ApJ, 898, 94. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba04a. [arXiv]
  5. Chen, X., Kontar, E. P., Chrysaphi, N., Jeffrey, N. L. S., Gordovskyy, M., Yan, Y., and Tan, B. (2020). Subsecond Time Evolution of Type III Solar Radio Burst Sources at Fundamental and Harmonic Frequencies. ApJ, 905, 43. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abc24e. [arXiv]

Authored open-source code:
1. scattering_shift.pro – Added to the SolarSoftWare (SSW) library.

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: n.chrysaphi.1@research.gla.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0002-4389-5540

Tel: +44 141 330 2960
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Blue Plaque for Prof. Alexander Wilson

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An Institute of Physics Blue Plaque was unveiled on Tuesday 28th March 2017 for Professor Alexander Wilson MD FRSE, the first Regius Chair of Astronomy at Glasgow (1760 -1784).

The ceremony was attended by the Astronomer for Scotland, Professor John C Brown OBE FRSE, University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anton Muscatelli, former Reader and Director of University’s observatory, Dr. David Clarke FInstP as well as a descendant of Wilson, James Babington Smith. The event also saw presentations and display of material for the University’s Hunterian museum and National Museums of Scotland. The blue plaque will be permanently mounted at the entrance of the University’s observatory at Acre Rd.

BBC News coverage of the unveiling.

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Congrats to Prof John Brown OBE

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John BrownCongratulations to the A&A group’s Professor John Brown (former Regius Professor of Astronomy and currently Astronomer Royal for Scotland) who has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List “for services to the promotion of astronomy and science education”.

PhD studentship in solar radio physics

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LOFAR_SDO_image2015_June20

Coronal Mass Ejection and radio source imaged by LOFAR and SDO (see details here)

A fully funded PhD studentship is available in the area of Solar Radio Physics at the University of Glasgow. It is a joint UK-Franco project supported by Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The successful candidate will be based in Glasgow in the Astronomy & Astrophysics group (http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk) and they will closely collaborate with Paris Observatory, Meudon. The PhD student will work with imaging and spectroscopic data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), developing simulations to establish more detailed links between radio transient phenomena and the fine structures in radio burst spectra.

The student should have a minimum of a 2.1 honours degree or higher in a relevant discipline and should be a UK or French National. The anticipated start date is 1st October 2016. Interested candidates should email Dr Kontar.

 

Congratulations to Peter Levens

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Peter Levens, a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, has won the School of Physics and Astronomy’s Thomson Prize for his second year report on Solar Tornadoes in Prominences.

Well done Peter!

Differential Emission Measure (left) and Emission Measure Distribution (right) for a location in the solar tornado. From Levens et al (2015) A solar tornado observed by EIS: plasma diagnostics. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 582, A27. (doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425586)

Differential Emission Measure (left) and Emission Measure Distribution (right) for a location in the solar tornado. From Levens et al (2015) A solar tornado observed by EIS: plasma diagnostics. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 582, A27. (doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425586)