Dr. Lynch is an Associate Research Physicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory. Dr. Lynch joined SSL in 2006 as an NSF SHINE postdoctoral scholar and worked on numerical MHD simulations of the breakout model for CME initiation, including characterizing the time evolution of the magnetic flux content of the CME ejecta during the eruptive-flare process and the overall rotation effects the large-scale coherent flux rope fields experience during propagation through the low corona. He has also performed analysis of coronal transient phenomena, integrating magnetogram, EUV emission, white-light coronagraph, and in-situ interplanetary data for selected CME/ICME events taking advantage of the multiple viewpoints provided by the STEREO mission.

Dr. Lynch’s current research interests are: (1) investigating the physical conditions leading up to and during eruptive flare and CME initiation: studying different energization boundary flows, initial magnetic field configurations and their subsequent evolution, and obtaining observational signatures from the simulations; (2) magnetic reconnection in the corona for driving the dynamic transition between open and closed field regions with implications for the formation of the slow solar wind, “streamer blobs,” small-scale magnetic flux ropes, and the outflow from coronal pseudostreamers; and (3) modeling the time evolution of ionic charge states within and surrounding the CME ejecta material for direct comparison with in-situ composition measurements, providing observational constraints on the plasma heating in coronal eruption models.