Engineering-Physics Space Plasma Seminar

Optional ZOOM LINK
Meeting ID: 927 5142 0885
Passcode: email physics.department@dartmouth.edu

"Advancing High-Cadence Imaging Technologies to Resolve Reconnection-Driven Solar Phenomena"

Resolving the rapid and complex dynamics of solar flares and magnetized plasmas demands advanced imaging technologies with both high temporal and spatial resolution. Through my work on the NASA Solar Flare Sounding Rocket Campaign, I contributed to the development and deployment of a novel soft X-ray (SXR) CMOS imager designed to overcome challenges in observing large solar flares, such as pixel saturation and charge blooming. High-speed CMOS sensors show promise for photon-counting and therefore spatially resolved spectral measurements, though achieving this capability often requires focusing readout on smaller sub-regions of the detector.

In this talk, I will discuss how achieving the "high-cadence horizon" in solar physics depends on major advancements in space system technologies and design, including onboard edge processing and efficient data management, to enable rapid data acquisition without exceeding storage, power, or transmission constraints. I also explore the potential of integrating neuromorphic vision technology to enable adaptive temporal resolution, and offering a unique, low-latency and complementary window on the most dynamic plasma. Understanding the fastest plasma phenomena is critical to unraveling the fundamental mechanisms driving energetics in the solar corona and linking these observable fast, reconnection-driven processes to broader astrophysical plasma systems.

Hosted by Professor Jens Mahlmann

About the Speaker(s)

Sophia Sanchez-Maes
NSF Graduate Fellow, Harvard

Contact

For more information, contact Tressena Manning at tressena.a.manning@dartmouth.edu or +1 (603) 646-2854.