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QUEST (Quiet-sun event statistics)

The QUEST project aims to characterise quiet-sun events involving the small-scale magnetic field using statistical analysis of multi-wavelength and spatially and temporally diverse data sets. Our goal is to follow, e.g., magnetic flux emergence, flux cancellation, and magnetic intensification events in the photospheric quiet-sun and to study the respective imprints of these events on higher atmospheric layers. We use data from a large database of calibrated observational data we collected from public sources and observation campaigns.
Within the work package I “Compiling the level 2 data base”, a data base for the QUEST project was built by retrieving suitable time series data from existing publicly available archives. In addition, multi-instrument time series data from observations of the QUEST group recorded at ground-based facilities at the GREGOR telescope are collected and analysed. This so-called level 2 database contains the physical parameters inferred from the data, such as velocities, magnetic field vector and so on. An alignment tool was developed within the QUEST project to provide co-spatial and co-temporal data. The magnetic field elements undergoing the physical processes need to be spatially located, characterised, and tracked in time. For work package II “Codes for identification, dynamic mapping, and event tracking” an existing code was expanded to develop a tool to track magnetic elements and their interactions. In work package III “Synthesised Sun” we use 3-D MHD simulations to synthesise spectral profiles which are, compared to the observations, degraded to the resolution of the concerned telescope to generate realistic data sets. Finally, for work package IV we study statistics of small-scale magnetic field events and correlation between the various physical parameters changes during the events.

QUEST Team
Dr. Catherine Fischer (Project PI 2018 - 2021)
Dr. Anjali Kaithakkal (PostDoc 2018 - 2021)
Msc. Saida Díaz (PhD student 2020 -2023)

Collaborators:

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina (KIS, Germany)
Dr. Juan Manuel Borrero (KIS, Germany)
Dr. Ryoko Ishikawa (NAOJ, Japan)
Dr. Serena Criscuoli (NSO, US)
Dr. Nikola Vitas (IAC, Spain)
Dr. Reza Rezaei (IAC, Spain)