Abstract: Kamen Kozarev '05

Recent advances in space-based solar observing have enabled unprecedented access to high-cadence, high-resolution observations of the coronal dynamics. This is extremely important, since transient phenomena in the corona usually cover multiple scales – from the current spatial resolution limit in the case of magnetic reconnection during solar flares, to several solar radii in the case of humongous eruptions of magnetic field and plasma, known as coronal mass ejections. The latter are also thought to drive shocks in the corona, which in turn have been shown capable of accelerating protons, electrons, and other ions to very high energies in a matter of tens of minutes. These solar energetic particles are a prime source of space weather, and a major radiation hazard for space exploration. I will overview some of these new observations, showing the presence of shock waves in the Sun’s atmosphere, and provide observational and modeling insight into how they may produce populations of energetic charged particles.