Ph.D. in Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA, January, 2010
"Periodic Solar Wind Density Structures"
M.A. in Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA, May, 2007
B.S. in Astronomy and Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, June, 2004
Nicholeen M Viall
(RSCH AST, SOLAR & SOLAR TRSTRL STD)
| Email: | nicholeen.m.viall@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.286.4054 |
| Org Code: | 671 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 671 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Research Interests
Solar Wind Formation
Heliophysics: Inner HeliosphereInvestigating structures in the ambient solar wind as tracers of solar wind formation. We use remote imaging data and in situ measurements in the heliosphere.
Solar Coronal Heating
Researching active regions and quiet Sun plasmas by developing new analyses of the multi-wavelength Solar Dynamics Observatory/ Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) data. Use physics-based coronal flux tube models to understand coronal heating and for the interpretation of line-of-sight effects in coronal observations.
Positions/Employment
Research Astrophysicist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenblet, MD, USA
March 2012 - Present
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
Solar Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD, USA
2010 - 2012
Investigation of coronal heating in active region loops using time series analysis, physics-based coronal loop models, and the multi-wavelength SDO/AIA data.
Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Astronomy, Boston University - Boston, MA, USA
2005 - 2009
Studied non-turbulent periodic density structures in the ambient solar wind, their affect on the Magnetosphere, focusing on the ULF wave response, and their possible source region and source mechanism. The main tools used were spectral analysis and time series analysis of Wind/Solar Wind Experiment data, Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory/ Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation white light images, and Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites magnetometer data.
Graduate Teaching Fellow
Department of Astronomy, Boston University - Boston, MA, USA
2004 - 2004
Responsible for teaching four Astronomy 202 lab sections per week; taught astronomy and space physics material complementary to main lectures; running laboratory experiments and discussion/office hours; grading homework assignments and lab reports. Attended bi-weekly class lectures and weekly teaching fellow class.
Education
Professional Service
American Astronomical Society (AAS)
Solar Physics Division (SPD) Vice Chair, 2022
SPD Committee member 2018-2020
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA), outstanding student paper awards committee co-chair and member of AGU SPA executive council, August 2011-Feb 2013
Outstanding student paper awards judge, Fall AGU meeting, 2009-present
Co-organizer and session chair of Fall AGU SPA session titled ‘Comparing Models of the Solar Magnetic Field With Data’, 2011
Lead organizer and session chair of Fall AGU SPA session titled ‘Recent Advances in Solar Coronal Heating’, 2012
International 'Coronal Loops' Workshop
Steering Committee member, May 2012-present
Science Organizing Committee, 2013-present
Goddard Space Flight Center
New and Developing Professionals Advisory Committee, May 2011-present
Taught introduction to solar/astronomy observational techniques course at the Goddard Space Flight Center Educator’s Workshop, July 2012
Solar and space physics presentation at the Glenn Dale Elementary School Career Day, May 2012
Solar and space weather presentation as part of The Girl Scouts of America 100th anniversary celebration, ‘The Scientist is In’ event, July 2012
Served on the GSFC Science Panel for Summer Interns, August 2012
NSF Solar, Heliospheric, and INterplanetary Environment program (SHINE)
SHINE Steering Committee 2019-2022
SHINE student representative, 2008 and 2009.
Co-GEM-SHINE student day leader (GEM-SHINE 2008 meeting)
Served as a reviewer on the SHINE National Science Foundation research proposals panel review
Other
Working group leader at the ‘Tracing the Connections of Eruptive Events’ workshop, Fall, 2012
Professional Societies
Women of Aerospace
2013 - Present
American Astronomical Society (AAS)
2010 - Present
American Geophysical Union
2005 - Present
Awards
Recipient of a NASA Early Career Achievement Medal, 2018
Recipient of the 2018 American Astronomical Society (AAS)/Solar Physics Division (SPD) Karen Harvey Prize for a significant contribution to the study of the Sun early in a person's professional career. Awarded ‘for her fundamental contributions to understanding coronal heating and the slow solar wind, and for her valuable service to the science community and the general public.’
Publications
Refereed
2025. "Connecting Solar Orbiter and L1 Measurements of Mesoscale Solar Wind Structures to Their Coronal Source Using the ADAPT-WSA Model.", The Astrophysical Journal, 990 (2): 97 [10.3847/1538-4357/adec6c] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Outer Zone Relativistic Electron Response to Mesoscale Periodic Density Structures in the Solar Wind: Van Allen Probes Measurements.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129 (10): [10.1029/2024ja032614] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Azimuthal Size Scales of Solar Wind Periodic Density Structures.", The Astrophysical Journal, 969 (1): 67 [10.3847/1538-4357/ad479e] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Proton polytropic behavior of periodic density structures in the solar wind.", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 686 L10 [10.1051/0004-6361/202450217] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "The multiview observatory for solar terrestrial science (MOST).", Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 254 106165 [10.1016/j.jastp.2023.106165] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Periodic Mesoscale Density Structures Comprise a Significant Fraction of the Solar Wind and Are Formed at the Sun.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129 (1): [10.1029/2023ja031403] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Scattered Light in the Hinode/EIS and SDO/AIA Instruments Measured from the 2012 Venus Transit.", The Astrophysical Journal, 938 (1): 27 [10.3847/1538-4357/ac8472] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "On Differentiating Multiple Types of ULF Magnetospheric Waves in Response to Solar Wind Periodic Density Structures.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127 (3): [10.1029/2021ja030144] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "An Analysis of Spikes in Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) Data.", Solar Physics, 296 (12): 181 [10.1007/s11207-021-01929-8] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Connecting the Low to the High Corona: A Method to Isolate Transients in STEREO/COR1 Images.", The Astrophysical Journal, 919 (2): 98 [10.3847/1538-4357/ac10ca] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "The Solar Wind.", Geophysical Monograph Series, 1-33 [10.1002/9781119815600.ch1] [Article in Book]
2021. "Power Spectral Density Background Estimate and Signal Detection via the Multitaper Method.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 126 (2): e2020JA028748 [10.1029/2020ja028748] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "An analysis of spikes in SDO/AIA data.", Solar Physics, [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "On the Relationship between Magnetic Expansion Factor and Observed Speed of the Solar Wind from Coronal Pseudostreamers.", The Astrophysical Journal, 898 (1): 78 [10.3847/1538-4357/ab98a0] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Relating Streamer Flows to Density and Magnetic Structures at the Parker Solar Probe.", The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 246 (2): 37 [10.3847/1538-4365/ab579a] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Near-Sun observations of an F-corona decrease and K-corona fine structure.", Nature, 576 (7786): 232-236 [10.1038/s41586-019-1807-x] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "The Source, Significance, and Magnetospheric Impact of Periodic Density Structures Within Stream Interaction Regions.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, [10.1029/2019ja026962] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Understanding Heating in Active Region Cores through Machine Learning. I. Numerical Modeling and Predicted Observables.", The Astrophysical Journal, 880 (1): 56 [10.3847/1538-4357/ab290c] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Observations of Solar Coronal Rain in Null Point Topologies.", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 874 (2): L33 [10.3847/2041-8213/ab0c5d] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Helios Observations of Quasiperiodic Density Structures in the Slow Solar Wind at 0.3, 0.4, and 0.6 AU.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124 (2): 837-860 [10.1029/2018ja026182] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "The Highly Structured Outer Solar Corona.", The Astrophysical Journal, 862 (1): 18 [10.3847/1538-4357/aac8e3] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Dressing the Coronal Magnetic Extrapolations of Active Regions with a Parameterized Thermal Structure.", The Astrophysical Journal, 853 (1): 66 [10.3847/1538-4357/aaa4bf] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Understanding Space Weather: Part III: The Sun’s Domain.", Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98 (12): 2593-2602 [10.1175/bams-d-16-0204.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "A Survey of Nanoflare Properties in Active Regions Observed with theSolar Dynamics Observatory.", The Astrophysical Journal, 842 (2): 108 [10.3847/1538-4357/aa7137] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "SIGNATURES OF STEADY HEATING IN TIME LAG ANALYSIS OF CORONAL EMISSION.", The Astrophysical Journal, 828 (2): 76 [10.3847/0004-637x/828/2/76] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "FADING CORONAL STRUCTURE AND THE ONSET OF TURBULENCE IN THE YOUNG SOLAR WIND.", The Astrophysical Journal, 828 (2): 66 [10.3847/0004-637x/828/2/66] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Implications of L1 observations for slow solar wind formation by solar reconnection.", Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (9): 4089–4097 [10.1002/2016gl068607] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "PATTERNS OF ACTIVITY IN A GLOBAL MODEL OF A SOLAR ACTIVE REGION.", The Astrophysical Journal, 821 (1): 63 [10.3847/0004-637x/821/1/63] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "PERIODIC DENSITY STRUCTURES AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SLOW SOLAR WIND.", The Astrophysical Journal, 807 (2): 176 [10.1088/0004-637x/807/2/176] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "THE TRANSITION REGION RESPONSE TO A CORONAL NANOFLARE: FORWARD MODELING AND OBSERVATIONS INSDO/AIA.", The Astrophysical Journal, 799 (1): 58 [10.1088/0004-637x/799/1/58] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "The effect of magnetopause motion on fast mode resonance.", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 119 (10): 8212-8227 [10.1002/2014ja020401] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "MODELING THE LINE-OF-SIGHT INTEGRATED EMISSION IN THE CORONA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CORONAL HEATING.", ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 771 [10.1088/0004-637X/771/2/115] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "MEASURING TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT PROPAGATING DISTURBANCES IN CORONAL FAN LOOPS USING MULTIPLE SDO/AIA CHANNELS AND THE SURFING TRANSFORM TECHNIQUE.", ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 778 [10.1088/0004-637X/778/1/26] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Slow mode waves and quasi-periodic upflows in the multi-temperature solar corona as seen by the SDO.", AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting, 44 #104.05- [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Slow mode waves and quasi-periodic upflows in the multi temperature solar corona as seen by the SDO.", AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting, 44 #104.05- [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Modeling the Diffuse Active Region Corona with Impulsive Nanoflare Heating.", ApJ, 771 (115): [10.1088/0004-637X/771/2/115] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Modeling the Line-of-Sight Integrated Emission in the Corona: Implications for Coronal Heating.", The Astrophysical Journal, 771 (2): 115 [10.1088/0004-637X/771/2/115] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Modeling the Diffuse Active Region Corona with Impulsive Nanoflare Heating.", ApJ, 771 (115): [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Nanoflare Properties throughout Active Regions: Comparing SDO/AIA Observations with Modeled Active Region Light Curves.", American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #220, 220 #309.04- [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "SDO / AIA Observations of Slow Mode Waves in Coronal Fan Loops.", American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #220, 220 #322.05- [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Evidence for Widespread Cooling in an Active Region Observed with the SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly.", ApJ, 753 (35): [Full Text] [10.1088/0004-637X/753/1/35] [Journal Article/Letter]
2011. "Pulsed Flows Along a Cusp Structure Observed with SDO/AIA.", Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 2117- [Journal Article/Letter]
2011. "Patterns of Nanoflare Heating Exhibited by Active Regions Observed with SDO/AIA.", Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 2103- [Journal Article/Letter]
2011. "Patterns of Nanoflare Storm Heating Exhibited by an Active Region Observed with Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly.", The Astrophysical Journal, 738 (1): 24 [10.1088/0004-637X/738/1/24] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Examining Periodic Solar-Wind Density Structures Observed in the SECCHI Heliospheric Imagers.", Solar Physics, 261 (175): [10.1007/s11207-010-9633-1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2009. "Are periodic solar wind number density structures formed in the solar corona?.", Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (23): L23102 [10.1029/2009GL041191] [Journal Article/Letter]
2009. "Relative occurrence rates and connection of discrete frequency oscillations in the solar wind density and dayside magnetosphere.", J. Geophys. Res., 114 (A01201): [10.1029/2008JA013334] [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Inherent length-scales of periodic solar wind number density structures.", Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), 113 [7101 10.1029/2007JA012881] [Journal Article/Letter]
2008. "Inherent length-scales of periodic solar wind number density structures.", J. Geophys. Res., 113 (A07101): [10.1029/2007JA012881] [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Discrete Frequency Magnetospheric Oscillations and Their Relation to Periodic Solar Wind Number Density Structures.", AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts, A2- [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Magnetospheric Oscillations and Their Relation to Periodic Multiple Discrete Solar Wind Number Density Variations.", AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, A384- [Journal Article/Letter]
2006. "Shock and discontinuity associated periodicities in the solar wind and magnetosphere.", AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, A378- [Journal Article/Letter]
2005. "The Occurrence Rate of Solar Wind Periodic Number Density Structures.", AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 264- [Journal Article/Letter]