Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Joint Spring 2016 Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 61, Number 3
Thursday–Saturday, March 31–April 2 2016; Beaumont, Texas
Session A1: APS Plenary Session I |
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Chair: Cristian Bahrim, Lamar University Room: Ballroom |
Friday, April 1, 2016 8:15AM - 8:55AM |
A1.00001: Solar Flares: Explosive Plasma Physics! Invited Speaker: Stephen Bradshaw Solar flares are among the most powerful explosions in the solar system. They cause strong variations in the EUV and X-ray output of the~Sun, and in the radiative forcing of Earth's upper atmosphere. Their rate of occurrence follows the \textasciitilde 11 year solar activity cycle and they take place in active regions; the locations of strong magnetic fields in the~Sun's atmosphere that are anchored in sunspots. The temperatures reached by flaring plasma exceed tens of millions of degrees Kelvin, perhaps even one hundred million degrees in the most energetic events. We are fortunate to live in an age during which we have access to an array of powerful observing instruments that have allowed us to begin unravelling the properties of solar flares, but there remains much to learn about their underlying physics and, in particular, the mechanism which drives them. During this plenary I will present some of what we have discovered about flares from an observational perspective and then I will describe the challenges associated with modeling these extreme events. The challenges are severe, but they must be overcome because modeling provides a crucial tool for guiding interpretations of the observational data. Finally, I will show some of my research group's most recent progress and findings. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 1, 2016 8:55AM - 9:35AM |
A1.00002: Atomic Data for the Diagnosis of Astrophysical Plasmas Invited Speaker: Gillian Nave Atomic spectroscopic data are used in a wide variety of fields including diagnosis of industrial plasmas, detection of trace elements, and calibration of spectrometers. No field, however, makes as many demands in terms of quantity and quality of atomic data as astrophysics. To analyze a stellar spectrum, we need to know where the spectral lines are, how strong they are, and what shape they are. I shall give examples of how measurements of these quantities made in the Atomic Spectroscopy Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are being used to improve our knowledge of stellar and solar atmospheres, find out how the elements were made, and test the possible variation of the fine structure constant in the early Universe. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 1, 2016 9:35AM - 10:15AM |
A1.00003: The James Webb Space Telescope Mission. Invited Speaker: Matthew A. Greenhouse The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 m$^{2}$ aperture telescope that will extend humanities' high angular resolution view of the universe into the infrared spectrum to reveal early epochs of the universe that the Hubble cannot see. The Webb's science instrument payload includes four cryogenic near-infrared sensors that provide imagery, coronagraphy, and spectroscopy over the near- and mid-infrared spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations to be proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble. The Webb's technology development and mission design are complete. Construction, integration and verification testing is underway in all areas of the program. The JWST is on schedule for launch during 2018. [Preview Abstract] |
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