Contact:
Department of Astronomy
New Mexico State University
PO Box 30001, MSC 4500
Las Cruces, NM 88001
(575) 646-1868
aks73@nmsu.edu
Los Alamos National Laboratory
astricklan@lanl.gov
I'm a current fifth-year Astronomy PhD student at New Mexico State University (NMSU), and Graduate Research Assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). I have a BS in Astrophysics, MS in Physics, and MS in Astronomy. My research focuses on both observation and simulation of coronal loops/rain the solar atmopshere and their contribution to mass/energy transfer between the different atmospheric regions. I also study thermal instability found in both solar and astrophysical plasma.
Link to CV
I am currently working as a Graudate Research Assistant at LANL with Dr. Timothy Waters on simulations of thermal instability in coronal loops using Athena++. We are also devloping a robust algprithim to analyze cooling functions for thermal instability. This project was presented at the 11th Coronal Loop Workshop in Tenerife and will soon be published in Solar Physics and the Astrophysical Journal.
After earning a master’s degree, I worked for a year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as a research assistant. My project was to use machine learning techniques and particle data from the Air Force’s GPS constellation to create a geomagnetic cutoff model. This model predicts how far highly energetic particles from the Sun can penetrate Earth’s magnetosphere. I was also responsible for contributing to the open-source Python library Spacepy.
My research with NMSU is to study jet-like structures called spicules at the boundary of coronal holes and their role in mass/energy transfer in the solar atmosphere. Using data from the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST), NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and Parker Solar Probe (PSP), we are working to track these jets from the surface of the Sun up through the solar atmosphere. By building a statistical database and studying the multi-threaded nature of these spicules, we hope to gain a better understanding of how they move plasma through the atmosphere and out into space. We are also looking into the mechanisms that feed these spicules through spectral analysis, 1D numerical simulations, and potential field source surface modeling. I also work closely with the Dunn Solar Telescope.
My undergraduate research and master’s thesis involved using carbon monoxide (CO) as a hydrogen tracer to study condensed clumps in a diffuse molecular cloud. We used spectral analysis of these structures to explore the processes that shape these cloud boundaries.
As an undergrad I also minored in paleoanthropology. In the summer of 2018, I worked on an excavation site in the Lake Turkana region of Kenya. My research project was to field test a new phytolithic (small micro-fossils) extraction process and use phytolithic analysis to study the earliest controlled use of fire.
Stricklan, A. & Waters, T. “On the stability analysis of optically thin cooling functions,” 2025, ApJ, in prep.
Waters, T., & Stricklan, A. “Catastrophic cooling in optically thin plasmas,” 2025, Solar Physics, 300, 5, DOI.
Carver, M. R., Morley, S. K., & Stricklan, A. L. "GPS Constellation Energetic Particle Measurements." 2020, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), DOI.
Stricklan, A. (2019). "Isolated Molecular Clumps at the CO-Boundary of a Diffuse Molecular Cloud", .S. thesis, University of Georgia, 2019, [Thesis]
A. Stricklan, T. Waters, “On the analysis of optically thin cooling functions,” 11th Coronal Loops Workshop, poster session, 2024.
A. Stricklan, “Coronal hole jets: A look at these beasts and what feeds them,” American Astronomical Society Meeting, poster session, 2023.
S. Morley, Y. Chen, M. Carver, A. Stricklan, and M. Engel, “Monitoring and Diagnosing Solar Energetic Particle Events Using the Global Positioning System Constellation,” American Geophysical Meeting, poster session, 2022.
A. Stricklan, “Physical properties of coronal hole jets,” New Mexico State University Special Research Topics, oral presentation, 2021.
A. Stricklan, S. Morley, and M. Carver, “Using GPS particle measurements to model geomagnetic cutoff,” American Meteorological Society Conference, poster/oral presentation, 2021.
A. Stricklan, “The search for early fire: A phytolithic study of site FxJj 20 AB,” Society of American Archeology, poster presentation, 2019.
Both through the NMSU Department of Astronomy an as an individual, I have participated in numerous volunteer and outreach activities. These include events with the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, Astronomical Society of Las Cruces, Sunspot Solar Observatory, Mission2Mars programs, Letters to a Pre-Scientist, Celebration of Our Mountains, and local public libraries and schools.
I love sharing astronomy with the general public and connecting with students in their love of science and future in STEM.