Outreach

The Center for Computational Heliophysics in Hawaii participates in a number of outreach projects.

Institute for Astronomy Open House
April 5, 2009

On April 5th, 2009, UH's Institute for Astronomy held its annual open house for the public. Hundreds of children and parents visited the IFA to explore the physics and astronomy demonstrations, lectures, and games.

Click to see more photos from C2H2's display at the Open House.

C2H2 prepared a display about the Sun and its effect on Earth. Open house visitors had the chance to peruse a poster describing the Sun's activity and featured 3D images of the Sun from TRACE. A movie demonstrated the type of behavior that takes place on the solar surface and how it affects people on Earth. A handout called "The Solar Astronomy Times" gave some background information about the Sun, discussed the satellites currently observing the Sun, introduced readers to the solar astronomers working at the IFA, and included a few puzzles for kids to solve.

Open house visitors were most interested in the magnetic exhibit which gave kids the chance to explore magnetism with a variety of magnets and iron filings. They were taught how iron filings revealed the field around a magnetic and showed how the magnetic fields of two or magnets interacted. It was explained that the Sun and Earth were also magnetic.

SPD Summer School
July 7-11th, 2008

This past summer, from July 7th-11th, C2H2 faculty Dr. Ilia Roussev organized and hosted an AAS/SPD Summer School focused on Solar Atmospheres at the Institute for Astronomy on Maui. Graduate students from across the U.S., Europe, and Australia attended the labs and lectures lead by an equally cosmopolitan group of researchers and professors. Read more by clicking on the link above.

During the summer school, students used a program called Tecplot to visualize solar eruptions and the solar wind. Read the article that Tecplot wrote about the summer school here: http://tecplot.com/showcase/contours/article.aspx?issue=46&article=1