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Vanessa Polito (she/her)
Research Scientist
Vanessa Polito
My work involves observations and simulations of solar flares and solar energetic events.
Current research
Questions
My research focuses on understanding the nature and dynamics of solar flares. These are the largest explosions in the solar system, associated with the release of energy in the form of radiation, ejection of hot plasma, and particles which are directed towards the Earth and cause severe disturbances to our space environment. Another key research interest of mine is focused on understanding the heating of the solar corona, which is a long-standing puzzle in solar physics.
Approach
To tackle these challenging problems, my research combines ultraviolet spectroscopic and imaging observations from space-based telescopes (such as SDO, IRIS and Hinode) with the predictions from radiative hydrodynamic models.
Innovations & Discoveries
My work has provided new insights into the dynamics at play in the early phase of a solar flare, and showed how observations from satellites such as IRIS, combined with simulations, can be used to differentiate between competing flare models.
Publications
Google Scholar
Education
Physics, University of Padova (Italy)
PhD in Astrophysics, University of Cambridge (UK)
Get in touch: polito (at) baeri.org
SDO/AIA image in the 304 Angstrom filter (a) showing the solar chromosphere with the field-of-view (yellow box) of the IRIS spectrograph overlaid. IRIS image of a flare “ribbon” (b) and an example of IRIS Mg II k and triplet spectra (insert).
About Vanessa
Where are you from, and what were you doing before BAERI?
I grew up in Siracusa (Italy), I currently live in the SF Bay Area. Before joining BAERI I was a post-doc at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
What’s one job-related thing that you love talking about with other people?
I like to tell people about the unsolved mysteries in solar physics. Because the Sun is the closest star to us, most people think that we know everything about it, which is not the case at all!
How about a non-job related thing?
In my free time I love playing the bass, in particular jazz music.
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