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Description

The Sun, the massive object that dominates the solar system and helps to support life on Earth, is also the driver of physical processes in the space environment between the Sun and the Earth, known as space weather. The practical importance of space weather is to mitigate its adverse effects on critical human technological systems, including satellites, their payloads and astronauts, communications, navigations, power grids, etc. This course is focused on the fundamentals as well as the recent progress in solar physics, to prepare graduate students for the space research in general. It includes the basic physical processes governing the formation of the solar interior and atmosphere, the solar magnetic field and configuration, the physical bases of flares and coronal mass ejections, and particle acceleration mechanisms. This introductory course is intended for graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students with academic background in physics/astrophysics. This course spans 40 class hours and merits 2 credits.

Grading

• Homework (30%): to reinforce the understanding of basic physical concepts

• Project (30%): three projects based on data analysis and numerical models to get some hands-on experience.

• Presentation (15%): research articles will be assigned for certain chapters for further readings. Each enrolled student is expected to give one presentation based on, but not limited strictly to, these assigned articles. Each presentation will last about 15 minutes, including 3-min Q&A.

• Final test (20%): an open-book test for physical concepts and intuition.

• Participation (5%): class attendence; raising/answering questions in class.

Text Book

“Physics of the Sun: A First Course" by Dermott J. Mullan (CRC Press, 2010)

References

• 太阳磁学（张洪起），科学出版社，2024

• 太阳磁流体力学（毛信杰），科学出版社，2023

• "The Sun as a Guide to Stellar Physics" edited by Oddbjorn Engvold, Jean-Claude Vial, and Andrew Skumanich, Elsevier, 2019

• "Magnetohydrodynamics of the Sun" by E.R. Priest, Cambridge University Press, 2014
  

• "The Sun: An Introduction" by M. Stix, Springer, 2nd Edition, 2002

• "Solar Astrophysics" by P. V. Foukal, Wiley-VCH, 2nd Edition, 2004

• "Physics of the Solar Corona" by M. Aschwanden, Springer, 2006

• "The Solar Corona" by L. Golub and J. Pasachoff, Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition, 2010

• "The Solar Transition Region" by J. T. Mariska, Cambridge University Press, 1992

Lectures

1. Introduction (Chap 1)

2. Radiation (Chaps 2, 4)

3. Absorption (Chap 3)

4. Photosphere & Convection Zone (Chaps 5, 6, 7)

5. Polytrope (Chap 10)

6. Helioseismology (Chaps 13, 14)

7. Chromosphere & Transition Region (Chap 15)

8. Solar Magnetism (Chap 16)

9. Corona (Chap 17)

10. Solar Eruptions

Projects

1. Line formation (due on Oct 24)

2. Polytrope (due on Oct 31)

3. Oscillations in polytrope (due on Nov 7)

Presentation

Midterm presentation (Nov 7)

1. Kostogryz et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Magnetic origin of the discrepancy between stellar limb-darkening models and observations

2. Rao et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Height-dependent differential rotation of the solar atmosphere detected by CHASE

3. Eggenberger et al. 2022, Nature Astronomy, The internal rotation of the Sun and its link to the solar Li and He surface abundances

4. Laurent et al. 2020, Science, Meridional flow in the Sun's convection zone is a single cell in each hemisphere

5. Hansen et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Supergranular-scale solar convection not explained by mixing-length theory

6. Hanson et al. 2022, Nature Astronomy, Discovery of high-frequency retrograde vorticity waves in the Sun

7. Stangalini et al. 2021, Nature Astronomy, Torsional oscillations within a magnetic pore in the solar photosphere

8. Yu et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Detection of long-lasting aurora-like radio emission above a sunspot

9. Yuan et al. 2023, Nature Astronomy, Transverse oscillations and an energy source in a strongly magnetized sunspot

10. Jess et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy, A chromospheric resonance cavity in a sunspot mapped with seismology

11. Vasil et al. 2024, Nature, The solar dynamo begins near the surface

12. Warnecke et al. 2023, Nature Astronomy, Numerical evidence for a small-scale dynamo approaching solar magnetic Prandtl numbers

End-of-term presentation (Nov 28)

1. Ishikawa et al. 2021, Science Advances, Mapping solar magnetic fields from the photosphere to the base of the corona

2. Mohammad et al. 2021, Nature Astronomy, The origin of reconnection-mediated transient brightenings in the solar transition region

3. Sharma & Morton 2023, Nature Astronomy, Transverse energy injection scales at the base of the solar corona

4. Bose et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Chromospheric and coronal heating in an active region plage by dissipation of currents from braiding

5. Lu et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, A model for heating the super-hot corona in solar active regions

6. Srivastava et al. 2018, Nature Astronomy, Confined pseudo-shocks as an energy source for the active solar corona

7. Schad et al. 2024, Science Advances, Mapping the Sun's coronal magnetic field using the Zeeman effect

8. Yang et al. 2024, Science, Observing the evolution of the Sun's global coronal magnetic field over 8 months

9. Antolin et al. 2021, Nature Astronomy, Reconnection nanojets in the solar corona

10. Jenkins & Keppens, 2022, Nature Astronomy, Resolving the solar prominence/filament paradox using the magnetic Rayleigh–Taylor instability

11. Reid & Kontar 2021, Nature Astonomy, Fine structure of type III solar radio bursts from Langmuir wave motion in turbulent plasma

12. Namekata et al. 2021, Nauture Astronomy, Probable detection of an eruptive filament from a superflare on a solar-type star

13. Zhou et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy, Simulations of solar filament fine structures and their counterstreaming flows

14. Bale et al. 2023, Nature, Interchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes

15. Hou et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, The origin of interplanetary switchbacks in reconnection at chromospheric network boundaries

16. Chitta et al. 2023, Nature Astronomy, Direct observations of a complex coronal web driving highly structured slow solar wind

17. Chitta et al. 2023, Science, Picoflare jets power the solar wind emerging from a coronal hole on the Sun

18. Yardley et al. 2024, Nature Astronomy, Multi-source connectivity as the driver of solar wind variability in the heliosphere