Dr Andrew Gascoyne – Sunspots, Sunquakes and Solar Storms: An Introduction to Solar Physics

Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specialises in the study of the Sun. It deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics, astrophysics, and computer science, including fluid dynamics, plasma physics including magnetohydrodynamics, seismology, particle physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, stellar evolution, space physics, spectroscopy, radiative transfer, applied optics, signal processing, computer vision, computational physics, stellar physics and solar astronomy.

Dr Andrew Gascoyne is a lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Wolverhampton. Prior to that I worked as a postdoctoral research associate at The University of Sheffield on the STFC funded project entitled “Magnetic Features and Local Helioseismology”.  My research area is focused on Helioseismology, the study of acoustic wave propagation within the interior of the Sun, and MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) wave propagation.  Mathematical modelling is a vital part of this research in order to compare and predict observational signatures and understand the many complex mechanisms and processes involved in the interaction of the solar acoustic modes with magnetic elements on the Sun i.e., Sunspots and Plage regions.