An Analysis of Coronal and Chromospheric bright points using automated methods

Abstract

The atmosphere of the Sun is awash with small scale, bright, features. From the very lowest of regions in the Chromoshphere to the outer stretches of the inner corona, we observe numerous phenomena. With coronal bright points (CBP), nanoflares, and magnetic bright points (MBP) on the smallest of scales to large, quasi-present, ARs (AR). These solar phenomena play a fundamental role in the dynamics of the solar atmosphere, and by extension thorough the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), the effect we observe at Earth.

A methodology is described within this Thesis. It attempts to robustly detect, track, and analyse small-scale coronal, chormospheric, and transition region (TR) features across a number of different space based instruments. This method will be developed for solar imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS). In addition to merely detecting and tracking these features, we will also undertake an analysis of their oscillatory behaviour.

This work is split into 5 chapters. The first chapter introduces general theories about the Sun, Bright Points, and their characteristics. The second chapter describes the methodology, as it applies to data from the 193Å channel of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard SDO, with the third chapter presenting the initial results. We expand upon the initial results by looking at the underlying magnetic properties of BPs using data from the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI), onboard SDO, in chapter 4. Finally, chapter 5 briefly expands the BP detection and tracking methodology to work with all AIA channels, and TR data from IRIS.

The small-scale features we observe in the Sun's atmosphere have a wade-ranging nomenclature, and so for the purposes of this thesis, we choose to observe coronal bright points and their lower atmospheric counter parts, herein referred to as bright points (BP).

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Huw Morgan (Supervisor) & David Kuridze (Supervisor)