HERE is a link to a list of example topics for the final project/paper assignment in this course.
Cranmer's LaTeX notes, mentioned in lectures
- On the Synthesis of Coronal White-Light Polarization Diagnostics (with a focus on Thomson scattering from free electrons)
- On the Synthesis of Coronal Emission Diagnostics (with a focus on UV resonance lines dominated by scattering)
- Non-Specular Scattering in Solar Coronagraphs: A Micro-Rough Guide (with a focus on how micro-roughness affects UV observations)
- Caution: The above notes are old (1990s-2000s), informal, and were produced mainly by Cranmer, for Cranmer, to help wrap his head around these "new" concepts in terms he already understood. Caveat lector!
Misc. papers and talks on off-limb coronagraphy/spectroscopy
- If you're curious to know about "pre-Lyot" attempts to observe the solar corona outside of solar eclipses, watch this engaging colloquium video from September 2014, given by Barbara Becker from UC Irvine. She discussed the work of William Huggins, who spent several decades in the late 19th century trying to photograph the corona with an instrument that (probably?!) was not able to remove the stray light diffracted from the solar disk.
- On October 12, 2015, Prof. Shadia Habbal from the University of Hawaii gave a colloquium about recent results from eclipse expeditions made over the last few years. Here is the link to archived video of her CU Boulder APS colloquium, but it is available only to people with a CU IdentiKey.
- In this PDF file I've assembled two papers: (1) a brief note by Peter and Dwivedi (2014) that reminds us about Hannes Alfven's historical role in figuring out that the corona is really hot, and (2) a scan of Alfven's 1941 paper cited by Peter and Dwivedi, which as yet isn't on ADS.
- Inhester (2015) wrote a massive review of Thomson and Compton Scattering in the solar corona, with a lot of the math given in exhaustive detail.
- A good review of UV and X-ray measurements of the corona (albeit a bit Russian-centric) is Slemzin et al. (2014), "Spectroscopic Diagnostics of the Solar Coronal Plasma." A local PDF copy is HERE.
Useful Data Files
- Solar disk intensity spectrum collected and rebinned from various sources: MEGS/EVE (λ < 67 nm), SUMER/SOHO (67 < λ < 161 nm), UARS/SOLSTICE (161 < λ < 200 nm), MODTRAN (λ > 200 nm). For doing original research, I recommend tracking down the original data sources and not relying on this kludgy kludge.
Solar News Updates
- Solar "Science Nuggets" (brief notes on recent results) are posted frequently by various groups. See: the UK solar physics community, the Stanford HMI/SDO group, the Mullard EIS/Hinode group, and the Berkeley RHESSI group.
- Yes, there is something called SolarNews. The AAS Solar Physics Division runs it as a twice-monthly email newsletter, but it's usually less about science and more about the community (jobs, meetings, etc).
Lecture notes from other relevant courses
- Rob Rutten (Utrecht), Radiative Transfer in Stellar Atmospheres, with some emphasis on the Non-LTE upper layers most relevant to the solar chromosphere.
- Jon Holtzman (NMSU), Observational techniques in astronomy.
- Niel Brandt (Penn State), High-energy astronomy.
- A. Gandorfer (Max Planck 2010 Solar System School), lectures on Solar Telescopes: Part 1 and Part 2.