Today, I found my sixth CME (August 15, 2010) so that I could get my first three “n” values.  Fortunately, all the values are very close to each other!  After finishing off the calculations for the August 15 CME, I was asked, by Dr. Dube, to create a spreadsheet that organized all the data neatly.  The spreadsheet took me a while just because I had to calculate the time the CME took to travel in days, hours, and seconds, and halfway through the process I realized that I had done the conversions completely wrong.  Dr. Dube also told me about eureqa, a program that can make a generalized formula for a set of data.  I downloaded it on my computer, but I still need to play around with it to understand how it works.  I am glad that I have at least calculated three “n” values, but it just seems like there is always so much work to be done.  I guess I have to just keep pressing forward and get as much done as possible!    

I again had a pretty good day!  I was able to finish up the calculations from the June 2, 2011 CME that I found yesterday and then I located two CMEs that happened two days later on June 4.  The two CMEs that I found from June 4 were both labeled "Halos" (meaning that they hit the Earth), however they both were shooting in the wrong direction according to the STEREO-A and the STEREO-B satellites.  Dr. Dube asked me to do the calculations for these CMEs anyway because the GOES instrument presented data that confirmed that these two CMEs did hit Earth.  Maybe there was a reversal of the axes in the STEREO-A and B data.  When I finished the calculations for CMEs, I found another "n" value.  Now I have two different "n" values, so I really only need one more!  Of course it can't hurt to have more, so my guess is that I will end up with more than just three "n"' values.  Having more will only increase the accuracy of  my research.  As usual, I am just going to keep trying to find as many CMEs as I possibly can, and I would like to start some slides for my final presentation tomorrow as well.

This morning I quickly started looking for CMEs and I found a great one that occurred on June 14, 2012!  I finished all the calculations for that CME and compared it to the CME that I found last week to get my first "n" value.  Dr. Dube told me that I had to find "n" two more times using different CMEs, so I spent the rest of the day searching and I actually just found one that occurred on June 2, 2011!  I am going to see how many measurements I can make today, but I will probably do a majority of them tomorrow.  I would also like to start making some background slides for my final presentation so that I can feel a little ahead of schedule! Overall, I think that today went really well! 

I finally found a CME!  The first date that I looked at after the morning meeting had a massive CME and I found data for it on STEREO-A, STEREO-B, SOHO, and GOES! I was able to calculate the speed of the CME, find when it actually hit Earth, use the equation d=V_CME*t+(1/2a)t² to get the acceleration, and then plug all the numbers into the overall equation a=A(V_CME-V_wind)ⁿ. Due to the fact that there are two variables in this equation I need to find another CME so that I can divide out the constant (A) to get a value for the exponent (n). So, tomorrow I am going to continue the search for yet another CME so that I can get a value for “n”. I also just remembered that I need to plot Height vs. Time graphs for the CME that I found today. It feels really good to finally have a productive day and I hope the success continues into next week!

During the morning meeting, I read my title and abstract out loud to all of the interns along with Bethany and Bob.  Overall, they thought it was pretty good.  They recommended that I shorten it and abbreviate CME instead of write out coronal mass ejection ten different times within only a few sentences! I have to agree I went a little overboard! The rest of the day I spent searching for a CME, but to no avail.  Dr. Dube pitched in to help me find a CME, and he gave me some dates to look at, but the dates he provided were before the STEREO-A and the STEREO-B launched so it would make any calculations less accurate.  I really hope that tomorrow is a better day because I want to be able to do some of the cool calculations, but I can't until I find a CME with data from all of the instruments!

Today, I helped Maggie do another trial for her senior project, and I am going back on Monday to do another trial.  After that, I went and talked to Dr. Dube about the issues that had come up yesterday and we both decided that it was best if I just started again on another CME.  I spent the entire day looking for a CME that was present in at least the SOHO, STEREO-A or B, and the GOES instruments.  I had absolutely no luck, unfortunately.  I really can't go any farther in the work that Dr. Dube just gave me until I find one, so it is really crucial that I find a CME as soon as possible.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a more successful day! 

This morning I went with a few interns to the graduate student symposium.  We listened to a few different talks on topics like fuel cells, Colt guns, and dusty galaxies.  There was also a keynote speaker who talked about the increasing female role at RIT and other colleges and universities.  I finished up my title and abstract today, and Dr. Dube really liked what I wrote!  I can’t believe that it is already week three and we are at our first milestone already!  This afternoon I looked at the August 31, 2012 coronal mass ejection to find the actual time that it took for that coronal mass ejection to reach Earth.  I am a little concerned because the actual time that I got was a lot longer than I expected, so I am probably going to go back and look for mistakes tomorrow.  The data I am looking at now is from the GOES instrument and it provides X-ray, proton, and electron flux graphs that show when the coronal mass ejection actually hit Earth.  I can’t find the proper data for the May 11, 2011 and the September 2, 2012 coronal mass ejections, though, so I may have to go back to the beginning and find another coronal mass ejection to use. 

Tomorrow, I am going back to the Color Science Hall to do a second trial for Maggie Castle’s senior project and it is also movie day!  Hopefully I can also resolve some of the problems that arose today!