Solar Transients and Space Weather (STSW)

Why study the STSW?

Observations of the Solar Transients and Space Weather provide the physical boundary conditions for the outer solar atmosphere and heliosphere. Historically, the STSW is comprised of the photospheric and chromospheric "layers". The photosphere is the first visible layer of the Sun's atmosphere where the ubiquitous magnetic field is routinely measured. Those magnetic structures interact with the turbulent convective processes of the solar interior throughout the STSW to drive the solar plasma dynamics. This lies at the heart of the outer atmosphere's mass and energy transport producing the solar wind, ultra-violet radiation, and Space Weather.

The research activities of HAO's STSW section are concerned with determining how the Sun's magnetic field both structures and drives the dynamics of the outer solar atmosphere. The present emphasis of its research activities focuses on observing and modeling the emergence, organization, and evolution of solar surface magnetic flux concentrations, from the visible solar surface into the tenuous corona.