Jack Reid

I am an applied mathematician at the University of St Andrews, conducting research in solar magnetohydrodynamics.

In particular, my major areas of research are:

• the evolution of the Sun's global magnetic field;
• solar coronal heating via nanoflares;
• diagnosing the nature of 3D magnetic reconnection;
• propagation of MHD waves in braided magnetic fields and in stratified atmospheres.

For further information, please see my personal website.

My current research is in solar magnetohydrodynamics, studying how plasma in the Sun interacts with its magnetic field to cause the solar phenomena that we observe.

Solar coronal heating

Like many, I work on the coronal heating problem, investigating processes that create and sustain hot temperatures in the Sun's atmosphere. In particular, I study how highly stressed and turbulent magnetic fields give rise to local magnetic instabilities, which can start recurring chains of small, reconnection-triggered heating events—'nanoflares'—that dissipate magnetic energy and cumulatively provide great heating across a range of spatio-temporal scales.

Global coronal magnetic field modelling

Much of the Sun's activity is controlled by its global magnetic field, which evolves in response to processes of surface flux transport and to the emergence of new magnetic flux through the photosphere. Using magnetofrictional simulations, which are informed by observational data for the emergence of new flux, I study that evolution, and how it gives rise to various significant magnetic structures in the corona. Especially important are the formation, growth, and eruption of filaments.

Magnetic reconnection

Through magnetic reconnection, magnetic field lines 'are broken and re-joined' and the topology of magnetic fields changed. As reconnection is thus instrumental in the evolution of magnetic fields, I explore its onset and effects in MHD plasmas. My work on reconnection has included a focus on the locations at which it occurs in turbulent magnetic fields.

MHD waves

MHD waves are ubiquitous in the Sun's atmosphere, and are of interest for coronal seismology and for explaining observed phenomena such as quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs). As well as these, they have also been posited as potential contributors to coronal heating. My interests with regard to waves includes how their propagation and dissipation in the solar corona are affected by magnetic complexity and by atmospheric stratification.

Solar magnetohydrodynamics (MHD); solar coronal heating; global coronal magnetic field modelling; magnetic reconnection; MHD waves