Overview of Research
I am a graduate student in the Department of
Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I work in
JILA as part of Juri Toomre's group studying Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid
Dynamics. Presently the group's research efforts focus on the turbulent
convection occurring in a layer (the convection zone) encompassing the
outer 30% (by radius) of the sun. Group members oversee several ongoing
projects, some observational and some theoretical in nature, which address
different aspects of solar convection ranging from near-surface dynamics to
magnetoconvection at the base of the convection zone.
My research involves studying supergranular convection using both observations of the
photosphere as well as numerical
models of the interior. Supergranules are convection cells
existing in a 20 Mm layer below the photosphere which arise from the
rapid decrease in density across this layer, the gradient in angular
velocity across this layer, and possibly the effects of partial
ionization of helium atoms across this layer. The tops of these
convection cells are visible in photospheric observations as patches
of divergent fluid. They can be detected directly from line-of-sight
velocity images as well as by using tracing techniques such as correlation tracking.
page last modified 6 Apr 2001