Solar activity as a research area focuses on the study of time-varying phenomena originating from the Sun’s magnetic field, including sunspots, flares, coronal mass ejections, solar wind variability, and associated irradiance changes. It integrates solar physics, plasma astrophysics, and space weather science to understand magnetic field generation via the solar dynamo, energy storage and release in the corona, and particle acceleration processes. This field employs multi-wavelength observations, in situ spacecraft measurements, and magnetohydrodynamic modeling to quantify solar variability and its coupling to the heliosphere, planetary magnetospheres, and upper atmospheres, with implications for technological systems and long-term space climate.
For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to create a 3D map of the sun's interior magnetic field, the fundamental driver of solar activity. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, should ...
Research conducted by an international team of astronomers from Southwest Research Institute, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences in India and the Max Planck Institute in Germany could help predict upcoming ...
Astronomy
Jan 20, 2026
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In May 2024, the strongest solar storm in twenty years raged. An international team led by ETH Zurich observed it. Their findings are now helping to improve space weather forecasts.
Astronomy
Jan 5, 2026
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105
Astronomers have produced the first continuous, two-dimensional maps of the outer edge of the sun's atmosphere, a shifting, frothy boundary that marks where solar winds escape the sun's magnetic grasp. By combining the maps ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2025
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69
A research team from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has detailed the physical characteristics of chromospheric jets in and around a sunspot, using high-resolution observations from the New ...
Astronomy
Nov 12, 2025
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36
Using high-resolution data from the one-meter New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST), a research team led by Prof. Yan Xiaoli from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has conducted an in-depth study ...
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2025
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The sun has become increasingly active since 2008, a new NASA study shows. Solar activity is known to fluctuate in cycles of 11 years, but there are longer-term variations that can last decades. Case in point: Since the 1980s, ...
Astronomy
Sep 15, 2025
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128
Most places on Earth have seasons because our planet is on a tilt as it orbits the sun. But our star also has its own version of seasons that affect life on Earth—and new astronomical research is helping us better understand ...
Astronomy
Sep 10, 2025
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NASA has launched Surya, its new heliophysics artificial intelligence foundation model to empower solar scientists with tools to enhance research and space weather forecasting. Southwest Research Institute's Dr. Andrés Muñoz-Jaramillo ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 26, 2025
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36
Our sun is about five times less magnetically active than other sunlike stars—effectively a special case. The reason for this could reside in the planets in our solar system, say researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 12, 2025
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