This page collects several scientific illustrations I have created over the years. Many of these images were created for my thesis, and I thought I would make them available so that other people who were interested in using or making similar illustrations would not have to duplicate work.
Please feel free to use or modify any of these illustrations for talks or use on web pages. Except where specifically noted, attribution is not necessary for informal use, although I would appreciate the courtesy of an email if you find a useful illustration.
Several illustrations are adaptations of other published works (this is noted in the figure descriptions). If you would like to use one of those figures, please cite the original paper or papers. If you would like to include an image in a formal publication, please contact me first.
High resolution PNG files can be downloaded by clicking on the images on this page. The vector format files (and, where relevant, the source files) for each image are linked below the image caption.
Some images on this page were created using Adobe software. In this case, the Adobe PDF, EPS or AI source file is included, but proprietary Adobe software is necessary to edit the files.
Many of these images were created using the excellent TikZ software created by Till Tantau. This software is free and quite powerful (In particular, TikZ contains some features useful for mathematically intensive diagrams which are not found in Adobe software). I would encourage anyone interested in producing illustrations which mix LaTeX formatting and graphics to investigate TikZ.
PDF files produced by LaTeX+TikZ were cropped using the PDFCROP utility by Heiko Oberdiek.
For some of the more complicated diagrams, I generated a curve in IDL and either plotted it as an EPS file or saved it in a text file. I then imported the EPS file to Adobe Illustrator or plotted from the text file using TikZ. In these cases, the source file is a zipped archive which includes the IDL code as well as the Adobe or LaTeX+TikZ source files.
If you find errors or missing files for any of these illustrations please let me know.
Cartoon showing examples of shocks in the heliosphere. Magnetic field lines are black, while the locations of shock fronts are labeled in red. The viewer is looking down on the ecliptic plane from above, except for the case of the bow shock interaction with the magnetized body, in which case the viewer is in the ecliptic plane. Arrows represent the flow speed of the solar wind, the CME, the interplanetary medium, or the LISM.
Created using: Adobe Illustrator
Files: Adobe Illustrator PDF
Shock parameters in the upstream and downstream regions of a shock.
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating the difference between fast and slow mode shocks. The magnitude of B increases from upstream to downstream for a fast mode shock, while it decreases for a slow mode shock.
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating diffusive shock acceleration at a parallel shock. A schematic typical path of a shock-accelerated particle is shown. Each encounter with the shock yields an average gain of energy, due to the converging flow velocities at the shock front. (Figure after Lee (2000).)
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating shock drift acceleration across a perpendicular fast mode shock. The magnetic field, coming out of the page, increases from upstream to down- stream and decreases the gyroradius of the incident particle. The particle continues to drift downstream during its repeated encounters with the shock front, until the parti- cle eventually escapes downstream (it is also possible for the particle to escape in the upstream direction). The bottom panel of the figure shows the kinetic energy of the par- ticle plotted as a function of time, showing how the energy gain occurs in several steps coinciding with the shock encounters. (Figure after Armstrong et al. (1985) and Ball & Melrose (2001).)
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Signal chain for generation of radio emission at the plasma frequency by shock accelerated electrons. Each block represents an phenomenon observable either remotely or in situ, and each arrow represents the process by which a link in the signal chain is generated by the link above. The small icons to the right of the boxes show schematic representations of (from top): a CME or magnetosphere/solar wind interaction region, the magnetic field jump across a shock crossing, a parallel cut through the distribution function of shock-accelerated electrons, the electric field observed in a Langmuir wave, and the drifting radio signal of a Type II radio burst.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating the magnetic mirroring of a gyrating particle moving from a region of low magnetic field to a region of higher magnetic field.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Examples of reduced distribution functions: undisturbed, with an electron beam, and with a relaxed beam. The top panel shows a distribution upstream of a shock. The middle panel shows the bump on tail region caused by the accelerated electron beam. The shaded panels show a region unstable to Landau resonance, since the slope of ∂f/∂v is greater than 0. The final panel shows the reduced distribution after the process of quasilinear damping (see text), illustrating the beam parameters vbeam and ∆v.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating the Fourier transform of a square wave.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Two regimes of antenna noise.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Cartoon illustrating the three-wave concept of mode conversion. The dispersion relations for the electron plasma (Langmuir) waves, ion acoustic waves, and transverse electromagnetic waves are shown. The left plot shows the process of generation of fundamental emission, and the right plot shows the generation of harmonic emission.
Created using: IDL and LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, Zipped IDL/LaTeX+TikZ source
Diagram illustrating geometry of the normal incidence frame and the de Hoffman-Teller frame. Only the upstream B and v vectors are shown. vHT is perpendicular to the shock normal and lies in the same plane as v1 and B1. The −v × B electric field is zero in the HT frame, where v1 and B1 are parallel.
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Friedrichs diagram showing a polar plot of phase speed for the different MHD wave modes, for a plasma where vA > cs. The three MHD wave modes are plotted with solid lines, while the characteristic speeds in the plasma are plotted with dashed lines. The numbers mark the different regions in velocity space, with transitions between different regions corresponding to different types of shocks.
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Interface between region with dielectric constant of approximately 1 and region with dielectric constant much higher than 1.
Created using: LaTeX+TikZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Diagram illustrating different populations of solar wind electrons, including the core, halo, and strahl. Two-dimensional velocity distributions as well as a cut through the parallel direction are shown.
Created using: Adobe Illustrator
Files: Adobe PDF, Adobe Illustrator source
Diagram illustrating the look directions for the downstream STE detectors on STEREO
Created using: LaTeX+TiKZ
Files: LaTeX PDF, LaTeX+TikZ source
Collage of NASA/ESA missions which have spent time in the solar wind and made significant discoveries related to in situ measurements of the solar wind. Missions are presented in approximate chronological order based on launch date. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list—the selection is mostly based on my personal and biased experience and knowledge!
Created using: Images available from the NASA website
Files: JPEG
