[Dr. Forbes' Photo Logo]

Dr. Terry G. Forbes
Research Professor
Solar-Terrestrial Physics

After receiving his Ph. D., T. G. Forbes obtained a post-doctoral appointment at the Los Alamos Laboratory where he did research on magnetospheric substorms in the geomagnetic tail using data from the newly launched International Sun-Earth Explorer satellites. He left Los Alamos in 1980 to take up a position as a research fellow in the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland where he worked on reconnection theory and developed numerical simulations of solar flares. In 1984 Dr. Forbes moved to the University of New Hampshire and worked there as a research scientist until he was promoted to the position of research professor in 1990. Since then he has continued to be interested in magnetic reconnection and solar flares and has taught courses on astronomy, astrophysics, and space physics.

Since 1990 Dr. Forbes' research work has been supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation, and he has received grants from France and the United Kingdom to carry out collaborative projects at the Observatoire de Meudon and the University of St. Andrews. He is currently a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, The European Geophysical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the International Astronomical Union.

Recently, Dr. Forbes, together with Dr. E. R. Priest of St. Andrews University in Scotland, is composing a book with title 'Magnetic Reconnection -- MHD Theory and Applications', and also directing the Ph.D. research work of Jun Lin on the mechanisms and theoretical evolutions of corona mass ejections (CMEs).

Recent Publications

  1. A Catastrophe Mechanism for Coronal Mass Ejections, T. G. Forbes and P. A. Isenberg, Astrophys. J., 373, 294-307, 1991.
  2. A Numerical Simulation of Magnetic Reconnection and Radiative Cooling in Line-Tied Current Sheets, T. G. Forbes, and J. M. Malherbe, Solar Phys., 135, 361-391, 1991.
  3. Magnetic Reconnection in Solar Flares, T. G. Forbes, Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, 62, 15-36, 1991.
  4. Field Opening and Reconnection, T. G. Forbes, in Eruptive Solar Flares, IAU Colloq. 133, (eds. Z. Svestka, B. V. Jackson, and M. E. Machado), Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 79-88, 1992.
  5. The Structure of Radiative Slow-Mode Shocks, P. Xu and T. G. Forbes, Solar Phys., 139, 315-342, 1992.
  6. Why Magnetic Reconnection?, T. G. Forbes, in Proceedings of the Oslo Mini-Workshop on Magnetic Reconnection, (ed. P. Maltby), Oslo Univ. Press, Oslo, pp. 19-28, 1992.
  7. Magnetic Reconnection in Solar and Space Physics, T. G. Forbes, in Proceedings of the Oslo Mini-Workshop on Magnetic Reconnection, (ed. P. Maltby), Oslo Univ. Press, Oslo, pp. 165-175, 1992.
  8. Does Fast Magnetic Reconnection Exist?, E. R. Priest and T. G. Forbes, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 16757-16772, 1992.
  9. Model Predictions for Magnetic Shear Changes During Solar Flares, T. G. Forbes, in The Magnetic and Velocity Fields of Solar Active Regions, IAU Colloq. 141, (eds. H. Zirin, G. Ai, and H. Wang), Astron. Soc. Pac. Conf. Series vol. 46, Provo, Utah, pp. 415-424, 1993.
  10. Catastrophic Evolution of a Force-Free Flux Rope: A Model for Eruptive Flares, P. A. Isenberg, T. G. Forbes, and P. Démoulin, Astrophys. J., 417, 368-386, 1993.
  11. On Current Sheet Approximations in Models of Eruptive Flares, T. N. Bungey, and T. G. Forbes, Solar Phys., 149, 205-208, 1994.
  12. On the Maximum Energy Release in Flux-Rope Models of Eruptive Flares, T. G. Forbes, E. R. Priest, and P. A. Isenberg, Solar Phys., 150, 245-266, 1994.
  13. Photospheric Magnetic Field Evolution and Eruptive Flares, T. G. Forbes and E. R. Priest, Astrophys. J., 446, 377-389, 1995.
  14. Models for the Motions of Flare Loops and Ribbons, J. Lin, T. G. Forbes, E. R. Priest, and T. N. Bungey, Solar Phys., 159, 275-299, 1995.
  15. How Does Fast Reconnection Work?, T. G. Forbes, in Small Scale Structures in Three-Dimensional Hydro and Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence, (eds. M. Meneguzzi, A. Pouquet and P. L. Sulem), Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 462, Springer-Verlag, Paris, pp. 319-324, 1995.
  16. Magnetic Reconnection and Field Line Shrinkage in Solar Flares, T. G. Forbes and L. W. Acton, Astrophys. J., 459, 330-341 1996.
  17. Reconnection Dynamics in Cusp-Shaped Flare Loops, T. G. Forbes, in High Energy Solar Physics (eds. R. Ramaty, N. Mandzhavidze, and X.-M. Hua), AIP Press, New York, pp. 275-284, 1996.
  18. A Strong Limitation on the Rapidity of Flux-Pile-Up Reconnection, Y. E. Litvinenko, T. G. Forbes, and E. R. Priest, Solar Phys.,167, 445-448, 1996.
  19. Arcade Models of Flares, T. G. Forbes, in Magnetodynamic Phenomena in the Solar Atmosphere Prototypes of Stellar Magnetic Activity, Proceedings of IAU Colloq. 153, (eds. Y. Uchida, T. Kosugi, and H. S. Hudson), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 287-294, 1996.
  20. Reconnection Theory for Flares, T. G. Forbes, in Observations of Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Atmosphere (eds. R. D. Bentley and J. T. Mariska), Astron. Soc. Pac. Conf. Series, ASP, Provo, Utah, pp. 259-267, 1996 (PS file is available).
  21. Unsolved Problems in Prominence Research, T. G. Forbes, in Theoretical and Observational Problems Related to Solar Eclipses, (eds. Z. Mouradian and M. Stavinschi), Kluwer, Dordrecht, 149-157, 1997.
  22. The Energetics of Flux-Rope Prominence Models in Axially Symmetric Systems, J. Lin, T. G. Forbes, P. A. Isenberg, and P. Démoulin, in New Perspectives on Solar Prominences (eds. D. Webb, D. Rust, and B. Schmieder), Astron. Soc. Pac. Conf. Series, ASP, Provo, Utah, 350-353, 1998.
  23. The Effect of Curvature on Flux-Rope Models of Coronal Mass Ejections, J. Lin, T. G. Forbes, P. A. Isenberg, and P. Démoulin, Astrophys. J., 505, 1006-1019, 1998 (PDF file is available).

Back to Home |Back to Directory