Peddie EXP Summer 2018

My last week was actually one of my most fun. I had pretty much finished with my research and was working on a presentation that I had to do for the Provost Program. This gave me a lot more free time, and I spent it hanging out with friends and generally enjoying my last days in Newark. I went out to lunch with Jaqueline, one of my friends who was also working at NJIT, pretty much every day, and our cuisine ranged from the food truck right outside the building to a place that served exclusively meatballs. I actually became really fond of Newark in my stay there. It’s definitely not as bad as people make it out to be, and there are a lot of parts about it that are good, or just funny. Since I went on daily walks for pretty much my entire stay, I knew the layout of the city very well, and had explored a lot (but only in the not-sketchy areas). I, of course, had my favorite walking path, which had many of the nicest views in the city. I also really liked some of the quirkier things a...

Hello good people! Are you ready to read lots of science? Because today I'll be describing my research in more detail. So, let’s get right to it. These past two weeks I’ve been working with a grad student, Nengyi, on the more advanced section of my project. In this part, I’m looking at the data that’s been gathered and trying to find interesting trends. Specifically, I’m finding an approximation of the total redshift at specific points based on spectrograph data, which tells us how the plasma at that point is moving. By studying this redshift we can see how the flare loops move, and whether there’s anything interesting to analyze there. This involves the data from the IRIS satellite, which has a built in spectrograph. A spectrograph separates light by its frequency. Because different elements put out different wavelengths of light when energized, we can isolate specific elements and analyze their bands. Here’s an example of the different bands for some random elements ...

My first week at the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research at NJIT went (luckily) almost exactly according to plan. After moving in to my room less than a block away from my lab, I had a weekend to contemplate my new home. I would say explore, except, being in Newark, there hasn’t really been that much wandering around. Newark is honestly a rather boring city. Nobody wants to visit, all the stores are closed on weekends and after 6 pm, and pretty much everyone flees to New York City on the weekends. Luckily, a light rail station a block away from my dorm makes that very convenient. I had already gotten an overview of my research over email, and that was confirmed by my PI, Dr. Wang, upon my arrival to the lab. I would be working under Dr. Jing, a research professor, for the first part of my research, when I looked at H-alpha images. These are the emissions from a specific spectral line created by hydrogen. By comparing red- and blue-shifted images, I created a dopplergram. This is an...