The solar corona as a research area focuses on the physical processes governing the Sun’s outer atmosphere, characterized by low densities, high temperatures (∼10⁶ K), and complex magnetic structures. It integrates observational solar physics, plasma astrophysics, and magnetohydrodynamics to study coronal heating, magnetic reconnection, wave propagation, flares, and coronal mass ejections. Research emphasizes multi-wavelength diagnostics (EUV, X-ray, radio), spectropolarimetry, and numerical modeling to infer coronal magnetic fields, energy transport, and particle acceleration. This domain is central to understanding space weather, heliospheric conditions, and the coupling between the photosphere, chromosphere, and interplanetary medium.
Syed Ayaz, a researcher at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has published a paper in Scientific Reports that builds on an earlier first-of-its-kind study that examined kinetic Alfvén waves (KAW) as a possible ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 14, 2024
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Proba-3 is such an ambitious mission that it needs more than one single spacecraft to succeed. In order for Proba-3's Coronagraph spacecraft observe the sun's faint surrounding atmosphere, its disk-bearing Occulter spacecraft ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 7, 2024
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44
NOAA today shared the first images from the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1), a powerful solar telescope onboard the new GOES-19 satellite. CCOR-1, the world's first operational, space-based coronagraph, began observing the sun's ...
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2024
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91
There is a profound mystery in our sun. While the sun's surface temperature measures around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its outer atmosphere, known as the solar corona, measures more like 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, about ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 11, 2024
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For the first time, scientists have taken near-daily measurements of the sun's global coronal magnetic field, a region of the sun that has only been observed irregularly in the past. The resulting observations are providing ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 3, 2024
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72
A UK team of researchers including UCL's Professor Lucie Green are working on the launch of a spacecraft mission that will allow us to view the sun's atmosphere in more detail than ever before.
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2024
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147
Solar wind is a never-ending stream of charged particles coming from the sun. Rather than a constant breeze, this wind is rather gusty. As solar wind particles travel through space, they interact with the sun's variable magnetic ...
Astronomy
Sep 26, 2024
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