Yes / The launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in early 2010 has provided the solar physics community with the most detailed view of the Sun to date. However, this presents new challenges for the analysis of solar data. Currently, SDO sends over 1 terabyte of data per day back to Earth and methods for fast and reliable analysis are more important than ever. This article details four algorithms developed separately at the Universities of Bradford and Glasgow, the Royal Observatory of Belgium and Trinity College Dublin for the purposes of automated detection of solar active regions (ARs) and sunspots at different levels of the solar atmosphere.

Yes / Solar flares are extremely energetic phenomena in our Solar System. Their impulsive, often drastic radiative increases, in particular at short wavelengths, bring immediate impacts that motivate solar physics and space weather research to understand solar flares to the point of being able to forecast them. As data and algorithms improve dramatically, questions must be asked concerning how well the forecasting performs; crucially, we must ask how to rigorously measure performance in order to critically gauge any improvements. Building upon earlier-developed methodology (Barnes et al. 2016, Paper I), international representatives of regional warning centers and research facilities assembled in 2017 at the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Japan to – for the first time – directly compare the performance of operational solar flare forecasting methods. Multiple quantitative evaluation metrics are employed, with focus and discussion on evaluation methodologies given the restrictions of operational forecasting. Numerous methods performed consistently above the “no skill” level, although which method scored top marks is decisively a function of flare event definition and the metric used; there was no single winner. Following in this paper series we ask why the performances differ by examining implementation details (Leka et al. 2019, Paper III), and then we present a novel analysis method to evaluate temporal patterns of forecasting errors in (Park et al. 2019, Paper IV). With these works, this team presents a well-defined and robust methodology for evaluating solar flare forecasting methods in both research and operational frameworks, and today’s performance benchmarks against which improvements and new methods may be compared.

Solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are very important for modelling laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas, for example the solar and stellar coronae, as well as for modelling many of the dynamic processes that occur in these different plasma environments such as the fundamental process of magnetic reconnection. Our previous understanding of the behavior of plasmas and their associated dynamic processes has been developed through two-dimensional (2D) models. However, a more realistic model should be three-dimensional (3D), but finding 3D solutions of the MHD equations is, in general, a formidable task. Only very few analytical solutions are known and even calculating solutions with numerical methods is usually far from easy. In this thesis, 3D solutions which model magnetic reconnection and rigidly rotating magnetized coronae are presented. For magnetic reconnection, a 3D stationary MHD model is used. However, the complexity of the problem meant that so far no generic analytic solutions for reconnection in 3D exist and most work consists of numerical simulations. This has so far hampered progress in our understanding of magnetic reconnection. The model used here allows for analytic solutions at least up to a certain order of approximation and therefore gives some better insight in the significant differences between 2D and 3D reconnection. Three-dimensional numerical solutions are also obtained for this model. Rigidly rotating magnetized coronae, on the other hand, are modeled using a set of magnetohydrostatic (MHS) equations. A general theoretical framework for calculating 3D MHS solutions outside massive rigidly rotating central bodies is presented. Under certain assumptions, the MHS equations are reduced to a single linear partial differential equation referred to as the fundamental equation of the theory. As a first step, an illustrative case of a massive rigidly rotating magnetized cylinder is considered, which somehow allows for analytic solutions in a certain domain of validity. In general, the fundamental equation of the theory can only be solved numerically and hence numerical example solutions are presented. The theory is then extended to include a more realistic case of massive rigidly rotating spherical bodies. The resulting fundamental equation of the theory in this case is too complicated to allow for analytic solutions and hence only numerical solutions are obtained using similar numerical methods to the ones used in the cylindrical case.

The search for planets orbiting stars other than the Sun has led to the discovery of over one thousand new worlds. The majority of these planets have been very large, Jupiter sized planets located very close to their host star. Transit surveys such as Kepler and SuperWASP monitor thousands of stars looking for periodic dips in light caused by a planet passing between our view point on Earth and their host star, blocking a fraction of the emitted star light. One of the primary limitations in detecting a small, Earth sized planet comes from stellar activity induced signals within the data collected by exoplanet missions. These signals can, however, be used to our advantage. In this thesis, asymmetries in transit light curves are exploited to reveal properties of both the planet and the host stars themselves. An asymmetry in the near-ultraviolet transit light curve of WASP-12b, one of the largest and hottest planets found to date is thought to be caused by the stellar wind interacting with the magnetic field surrounding the planet. In this thesis, a model for such an interaction is developed and is shown to be consistent with the observations, providing the first potential evidence for the presence of a magnetic field around an exoplanet. The model is then extended to predict the shape of near-ultraviolet light curves around HD 189733b, another hot Jupiter that orbits a very bright star. By looking at the variability in these transit light curves over time, the evolution and structure of the stellar wind is investigated. By tracking the position of bumps in the transit light curve, it is shown here that the data collected by missions such as Kepler has the potential to reveal stellar butterfly patterns. Such patterns are intrinsically linked with the stellar dynamo which governs the properties of the stellar magnetic field. Finally, the support of large-scale magnetic loops on young stars is investigated. These loops trap large amounts of hot, dense material and so a rapid destabilisation could lead to a flaring event, which could have devastating consequences for a nearby exoplanet.

"The pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) is an onboard electromagnetic propulsion device currently being considered for use in various small satellite missions. The work presented in this thesis is directed toward improving PPT performance using a control engineering approach along with externally applied magnetic fields. An improved one dimensional electromechanical model for PPT operation is developed. This slug model represents the PPT as an LRC circuit with a dynamics equation for the ablated plasma. The improved model includes detailed derivation for the induced magnetic field and a model for the plasma resistance. A modified electromechanical model for the case of externally applied magnetic fields is also derived for the parallel plate geometry. A software package with a graphical user interface (GUI) is developed for the simulation of various PPT types, geometric configurations, and parameters The simulations show excellent agreement with data from the Lincoln Experimental Satellite (LES)-6, the LES-8/9 PPT and the Univ. of Tokyo PPT. The control objective employed in this thesis involves the maximization of the specific impulse and thrust efficiency of the PPT, which are each directly related with the exhaust velocity of the thruster. This objective is achieved through the use of an externally applied magnetic field as a system actuator. To simulate an open-loop constant-input controller the modified electromechanical PPT model is applied to the various PPT configurations. In this controller the external magnetic field was applied as constant throughout or portions of the PPT channel. For the Univ. of Tokyo PPT a magnetic field applied over the entire 6-cm long channel increases the specific impulse and thrust efficiency by 10% over the case that the filed is applied in the first 1.75 cm of the PPT channel. The magnitude of these increases compare well with the results of the UOT applied B-field experiments. For the LES-6 and LES-9 PPTs, the simulations predicts significant performance enhancements with approximately linear increases for the specific impulse, thrust efficiency and impulse bit. "

While many investigations have been performed to establish a better understanding of the effects that magnetic fields and nanoparticles have on cells, the fundamental mechanisms behind the interactions are still yet unknown, and investigations on concurrent exposure are quite limited in scope. This study was therefore established to investigate the biological impact of concurrent exposure to magnetic nanoparticles and extremely-low frequency magnetic fields using an in-vitro CHO-K1 cell line model, in an easily reproducible manner to establish grounds for further in-depth mechanistic, proteomic, and genomic studies. Cells were cultured and exposed to 10nm Fe3O4 nanoparticles, and DC or low frequency (0Hz, 50Hz, and 100Hz) 2.0mT magnetic fields produced by a Helmholtz coil pair. The cells were then observed under confocal fluorescence microscopy, and subject to MTT biological assay to determine the synergistic effects of these concurrent exposures. No effects were observed on cell morphology or microtubule network; however, cell viability was observed to decrease more drastically under the combined effects of magnetic field and nanoparticle exposures, as compared to independent exposures alone. It was concluded that no significant difference was observed between the types of magnetic fields, and their effects on the nanoparticle exposed cells, but quite clearly there are deleterious synergistic effects of these concurrent magnetic field and nanoparticle exposure conditions.

Several previous studies, including one using early Sanae radar data, have found examples of high speed ionospheric plasma flows on the nightside, mapping to the magnetospheric tail, during periods which were magnetically quiet. These high speed flows were interpreted to be associated with the release of energy from a rapid reconfiguration of tail magnetic field lines due to reconnection. Such events are now known as ‘TRINNIs’ or ‘tail reconnection during IMF northward, non-substorm intervals’. The purpose of this study was to identify further TRINNI events, using SuperDARN data from both hemispheres. In situations where the y-component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field dominates over the z-component, the directions of both the high speed flows and the underlying convection pattern depend on the direction of the y-component. Some examples of likely TRINNI events for cases where the y-component was positive and negative are presented and discussed. The assumption of a non-substorm interval is justified by magnetometer and GOES satellite data, and the observations are discussed in relation to magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

Magnetic flux continually emerges from the Sun, rising through the solar interior, emerging at the photosphere in the form of sunspots and expanding into the atmosphere. Observations of sunspot rotations have been reported for over a century and are often accompanied by solar eruptions and flaring activity. In this thesis, we present 3D numerical simulations of the emergence of twisted flux tubes from the uppermost layers of the solar interior, examining the rotational movements of sunspots in the photospheric plane. The basic experiment introduces the mechanism and characteristics of sunspot rotation by a clear calculation of rotation angle, vorticity, magnetic helicity and energy, whereby we find an untwisting of the interior portion of the field, accompanied by an injection of twist into the atmospheric field. We extend this model by altering the initial field strength and twist of the sub-photospheric tube. This comparison reveals the rotation angle, helicity and current show a direct dependence on field strength. An increase in field strength increases the rotation angle, the length of fieldlines extending into the atmosphere, and the magnetic energy transported to the atmosphere. The fieldline length is crucial as we predict the twist per unit length equilibrates to a lower value on longer fieldlines, and hence possesses a larger rotation angle. No such direct dependence is found when varying the twist but there is a clear ordering in rotation angle, helicity, and energy, with more highly twisted tubes undergoing larger rotation angles. We believe the final angle of rotation is reached when the system achieves a constant degree of twist along the length of fieldlines. By extrapolating the size of the modelled active region, we find rotation angles and rates comparable with those observed. In addition, we explore sunspot rotation caused by sub-photospheric velocities twisting the footpoints of flux tubes.

The solar corona is a highly conductive plasma which is dominated by the coronal magnetic field. Observations show that important solar phenomena like flares or the heating of the corona are driven by magnetic energy, probably through the process of magnetic reconnection. The release of magnetic energy by reconnection requires that non-ideal processes take place in contradiction to the high conductivity of the corona. One possibility to overcome this problem is to generate strong electrical currents in strongly localised regions. In this thesis we investigate how such localised currents can be formed by slow ideal evolution of topologically simple magnetic fields. To this purpose numerical simulations are carried out using an Eulerian and a Lagrangian MHD relaxation code. We first use a simple example (twisting of a uniform field) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of both codes and to discover possible limitations for their application. We show that for the problems addressed in this thesis the Lagrangian code is more suited because it can resolve the localised current densities much better than the Eulerian code. We then focus in particular on magnetic fields containing a so-called Hyperbolic Flux Tube (HPT). A recently proposed analytical theory predicts that HFT's are sites where under certain conditions strong current build-up can be expected. We use our code to carry out a systematic parametric study of the dependence of current growth for a typical HFT configuration. We have also developed a completely new version of the analytical theory which is directly based on the set-up of our numerical simulations. We find that the simulations agree with the analytical prediction in a quantitative way but that the analytical theory underestimates the current growth quite substantially, probably by not taking into account the non-linear character of the full problem.

Although the solar corona is one of the most studied areas in solar physics, its activity, such as flares, prominence eruptions and CMEs, is far from understood. Since the solar corona is a low-ß plasma, its structure and dynamics are driven by the magnetic field. The aim of this PhD thesis to study the magnetic field in the solar corona. Unfortunately, high quality direct measurements of the coronal magnetic field are not available and theoretical extrapolation using the observed photospheric magnetic field is required. The thesis is mainly divided in two parts. The first part deals with the comparison between theoretical models of magnetic fields and observed structures in the corona. For any theoretical model, a quantitative method to fit magnetic field lines to observed coronal loops is introduced. This method provides a quantity C that measures how closely a theoretical model can reproduce the observed coronal structures. Using linear force-free field extrapolation, the above field line fitting method is used to study the evolution of an active region. The method is also illustrated when the theoretical magnetic field depends on more than one parameter. The second part of the thesis focuses on the linear force-free field assumption using two different geometric configurations. Firstly a vertical rigid magnetic flux tube is considered. The analytical expression of the magnetic field is obtained as an expansion in terms of Bessel functions. The main properties of this system are discussed and compared with two cylindrically symmetric twist profiles. For the second system, the photosphere is assumed to be an infinite plane. Using translational geometry, the analytical expression of the linear force-free magnetic field that matches a prescribed line of sight magnetic field component is obtained. This solution is compared with the non-linear solution obtained by Roumeliotis (1993).