Date of Award
12-1-2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Brevik, Corinne
Second Advisor
Sivakumar, Poopalasingam
Abstract
Demonstrating the diversity of computational methods in applied physics, this dissertation examines multiple computational techniques applied to three different research projects. These techniques span multiple programming languages to accomplish the tasks required for each research project.In the first study, standard Python automated curve fitting is applied to laser induced spectroscopy (LIBS) emission spectra from Mars laboratory standards before machine learning (ML) clustering is used to analyze the LIBS continuum. Following clustering, ML classification and dimension reduction are introduced to correlate the continuum behavior to the hardness of rocks on Mars. The second study presents a software suite built for the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative to allow citizen scientists to collect scientific quality images of the Sun’s inner corona during a total solar eclipse. This work integrated IronPython scripting with both Python 3 and Batch scripts from the proprietary SharpCap IronPython interface. Solar image post-processing is accomplished with a software patch for the Python version of the open-source Planetary System Stacker. Also included in this study is website design for https://debra.physics.siu.edu/ with HTML, CSS, and Bash as well as image analysis with ML clustering. Finally, as DEB transitioned to daily observations of the solar photosphere to study X-class flares, additional scripts were required to meet the new experimental requirements. Those scripts and a more in-depth Python image processing program are covered. The image processing includes ML clustering to identify and crop the region of interest associated with flare activity out of solar images. Upgrading the website HTML code to PHP to provide additional features is also addressed. All the software developed for the DEB Initiative, as part of this work, is available under a GNU license from Mandrell et al. 2025, including the Planetary System Stacker software patch that allows automated post-processing.
Access
This dissertation is only available for download to the SIUC community. Current SIUC affiliates may also access this paper off campus by searching Dissertations & Theses @ Southern Illinois University Carbondale from ProQuest. Others should contact the interlibrary loan department of your local library or contact ProQuest's Dissertation Express service.