I had a really great day today! I came into work this morning extremely nervous to present in front of Bethany, Bob, and the other interns. While I was presenting, though, I realized it wasn't really that bad and by the time I finished I thought I had done a pretty good job! I got some good criticisms and I spent the rest of the day making final edits to my PowerPoint. After I finished the presentation and gave the updated version to Bethany, Simran, Sara, Mary Emma, Mia, and I all took a little tour of the campus and took a lot of great pictures for me to bring back to Connecticut. I am really sad that tomorrow is the last day because I loved going to work everyday and I loved hanging out with all of the interns. Tonight I tried a garbage plate for the first time too! A lot of the interns had been telling me to get one, but I always said no because it just sounded so gross. However, I was surprised that it was actually kind of good, and I am glad that I did something special to Rochester on my last night here. All I can do now is hope tomorrow goes well!

I finished the PowerPoint today!!! I typed out an entire script that has the most important points that I want to cover for each slide, and now I need to go home and review it a few times so that I am comfortable to present tomorrow and then again on Friday! I am glad that it is done and that I feel good about the material because it has made me a lot less nervous about tomorrow! We also had Christmas in August today, which was basically just a Secret Santa, and Sara brought in an actual Christmas Tree! It was super fun and Elizabeth gave me Giants flip-flops, a Giants rubber ducky, and a Giants bracelet! I am so excited for the football season to start and now I have all this great stuff!!! Tomorrow we are all going to sit down and do a run-through of our presentations, so hopefully I present well so that I have no worries going into Friday!

Today I just continued to work on my presentation.  It is really coming along and tomorrow I hope to just add some finishing touches!  I am still trying to decide whether it would be best for me to write out a script, or just practice a few times.  Sometimes I think that if I get too attached to a script, then it will sound choppy when I try and present.  I can't believe that there are only three days left but I am going to try to make the most of them!

After the last Monday morning meeting, I continued working on my presentation.  I got through a lot of it, but I still have to add a lot more pictures and I need to add some more information to the introduction.  Ian helped me a tremendous amount today with editing pictures, so a huge thanks to him! I would also like to write up a script of what I am going to say before I present to the interns on Thursday.  I can't believe how long it is taking me to put this presentation together, but I want to make sure it is good!

Yesterday, Dr. Dube and I analyzed the 15 "n" values that I had calculated from the day before. We found a pattern that as the speed of the CME increased, then the "n" value increased. However, Dr. Dube showed me a journal article that stated that slow CMEs should have "n" values close to two, and that fast CMEs should have "n" values around one. We were able to find a pattern, but it was not supportive of the data already published in the journal article. Dr. Dube and I spent the rest of the day looking at my numbers and we came to the conclusion that we really only needed the velocity of the CME as it traveled towards Earth. I simplified my calculations so that I was only calculating the velocity of the CME with data from the STEREO-A and STEREO-B satellites. When I recalculated the numbers this morning, my "n" values supported what was stated in the journal article I mentioned earlier. I am really happy that Dr. Dube and I were able to locate a pattern in my calculations. I spent the rest of the day making my presentation!! We also had a really fun, final BBQ!!

After the morning meeting I got straight into working on my presentation and I got the introduction, hypotheses, and the approach done.  I haven’t chosen a pretty background yet, and I don’t have any pictures, so it looks really ugly right now.  I got one successful intensity profile vs. proton flux correlation graph, but I couldn’t seem to get any more.  I also went back to my calculations of “n” and finished them up.  I was able to get 15 “n” values and I think I found a pattern that would conclude my research this summer!  I still would like to find two more CMEs that I can track the shapes of so that my final statement, about whether or not drag affects them, is as accurate as possible.  I am just going to keep working on my presentation tomorrow and Friday.  I am also going to keep looking for more CMEs so that my data is accurate and precise.  I also submitted my final abstract for the presentation today!

This morning I began searching for two other Halo CMEs to make proton flux and x-ray graphs so that I could track the shape of the CME, however Dr. Dube said that the x-rays probably wouldn't be that much help in determining the shape.  He told me to instead use the program ImajeJ to create intensity profiles that would replace the x-rays.  Then after that, Dr. Dube said that he wanted to make scatter plots that would show if the CME's shape was similar from when it left the sun to when it arrived at Earth (aka correlation graphs).  I only got through one today, but hopefully I can get the other two done tomorrow!

Yesterday was an awesome day!  I got to see all the interns again, and I had a great time at the Mees Observatory!  I got to see a lot of amazing objects in space from the telescope, and I also was lucky enough to see a few meteorites.  Sorry, also, about promising pictures last Friday and never providing them, but I am having some troubles uploading them.  Hopefully I can get some up this week!

I managed to make two graphs today that depict the change in the shape of the CME from when it left the sun to when it arrived at Earth!  The x-ray graph looks a little too perfect so I am not sure that I did it right, but I couldn't find any mistakes in the data.  The proton flux graph came out really well though!  Here are some pictures!  I still have to put all of my data into eureqa to get a generalized formula, and I have to make some more graphs that depict the change of shape in my CMEs.  And then I have to put together the final presentation.  Unfortunately, I am not going to be at work next week because I couldn't find a place to live due the PGA tour, but Bethany and Bob talked to me and are confident in my ability to finish on time.  They also offered to read my outline the Monday that I return so that I can feel organized before I make my PowerPoint!  I am actually pretty sad to leave the internship, but at least I still have two weeks when I get back.  Next week I am probably going to complete my summer reading for school and finish my college essay, so at least something important will get done!  

This morning was pretty frustrating as Dr. Dube asked me to look for some data that I just could not find online.  It took me four hours to locate the proton and x-ray flux data, but I found it eventually!  Due to the fact that the data did not precede 2013, I was unable to find data that matched the CMEs that I had been measuring.  However, Dr. Dube said that was alright, because it didn’t affect the research.  This aspect of research is so that we can track how that shape changes from the beginning of its journey (at the sun) to the end (when it reaches Earth).  The x-rays can be measured only 8 minutes after an ejection, and the proton fluxes are measured from Earth.  The graphs that are created can tell us if the CME stretched, narrowed, etc.  I found a “Halo” CME, but I only started moving the data to excel.  That is something to finish for tomorrow.  Now I will have evidence of a drag effect, and how the shape of the CME changed.  This was a new part that I didn't know I would be able to study!  I feel really lucky that I am getting this amazing opportunity to learn so much about CMEs, especially because I find them extremely interesting!  I once again didn't start my presentation, so that needs to happen tomorrow!