Observational Challenges for the Next Decade of Solar Magnetohydrodynamics
Coordinators: George H. Fisher, Dana W. Longcope
Focus and Scope
This three-day workshop will focus primarily on the latest space-borne and ground-based observations relevant to the theoretical models of solar magnetic fields.Recent instrumentation and analysis techniques have made advances pertinent to models of the solar dynamo, models of the solar corona, and models for energy release in solar flares and coronal mass ejections. For their part, theoretical models have developed to a level of sophistication that increasingly make it possible to address observations directly. This workshop will focus on the latest observational results and discuss the challenges they present for theory and modeling.
The workshop is intended partly to initiate a separate ten-week theoretical program focusing on solar magnetic fields and crossover applications to astrophysics. The topics of the workshop will be aimed toward stimulating work in the focal areas of the ten-week program:
- The origin and evolution of magnetic fields in the solar interior, with a particular emphasis on relating the observed fields at the surface of the Sun to their subsurface properties,
- The role that changing magnetic fields in the corona play in the explosive release of energy,(with an emphasis on reconnection and particle acceleration during solar flares),
- how magnetic field evolution at the photospheric level drives coronal mass ejections and solar wind flows, and
- the application of the lessons learned from the Sun to other astrophysical environments.
All meeting participants are invited to submit contributed talks in the form of posters, which will be available for viewing during the 3 days of the meeting.