The Sun supports life on Earth and has a huge impact on human civilisation. Solar activity, revealing itself as coronal mass ejections and flares reaching the terrestrial magnetosphere, can damage power lines, and disrupt communications and navigation systems. Last but not least, due to the proximity of the Sun to Earth, the Sun is a natural physical laboratory allowing us to study, develop and test our theories of stellar structure, activity and evolution, and of fundamental plasma physics. One of the currently unsolved problems in solar physics is the nature of the energetic connection between the solar interior and the outer solar atmosphere.
In the recent years, the importance of partial ionisation for the energy balance in solar atmospheric plasma has been realised. It was shown that due to partial ionisation effects, dissipation of dynamic currents, produced by magnetic oscillations in the solar atmosphere, releases significant amount of thermal energy in the solar chromospheric plasma. This potentially provides a way to ultimately solve the problem of solar chromospheric heating.
Understanding the dynamics of the solar atmosphere is tremendously difficult. The large range of parameters, enormous physical scales and three-dimensional effects involved make analytical studies practically impossible. Therefore, the main means for theoretical studies of the physical processes in the solar atmosphere is computational magneto-hydrodynamic modelling. A number of numerical tools are currently being developed. You will be involved in development, improvement and utilisation of these numerical tools in solar physics.
Your project will address one or more of the following research topics:
* improvement of the numerical scheme and boundary conditions
* development, implementation and testing of two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic code
* computational study of the energy transport in magnetised partially-ionised solar atmosphere
The project requires some knowledge in programming and applied mathematics.
Please note eligibility requirement:
* Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. normally an Honours Degree: 1st or 2:1 (or equivalent) or possession of a Masters degree, with merit (or equivalent study at postgraduate level). Applicants may also be accepted on the basis of relevant and substantial practitioner/professional experience.
* Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please ensure you quote the advert reference above on your application form.
Deadline for applications: 1 November 2016 Start date: March 2017
Funding Notes
The studentship includes a full stipend, paid for three years at RCUK rates (in 2016/17 this is £14,296 pa) and fees (Home/EU £4,350 / International £13,000).
References
Shelyag, S., Khomenko, E., de Vicente, A., Przybylski, D. ApJL, accepted, 2016
Arber, T.D., Brady, C.S., Shelyag, S. accepted, ApJ, 2016
Shelyag, S., Cally, P.S., Reid, A., Mathioudakis, M. ApJL, 776L, 4, 2013
*Offer only available for the duration of your active subscription, and subject to change. You MUST claim your prize within 72 hours, if not we will redraw.
Do you want hassle-free information and advice?
Create your FindAPhD account and sign up to our newsletter:
Find out about funding opportunities and application tips
Receive weekly advice, student stories and the latest PhD news
Hear about our upcoming study fairs
Save your favourite projects, track enquiries and get personalised subject updates
Due to your Facebook privacy settings, we were unable to create your account at this time. Please select another method to sign up.
We were unable to log you in with your Google account at this time. If you have third-party cookies blocked, please enable them, refresh, and try again.
or
Continue with Facebook
Create your account
We were unable to log you in with your Google account at this time. If you have third-party cookies blocked, please enable them, refresh, and try again.
Looking to list your PhD opportunities? Log in here.