Alfvénic waves are regarded as an important process in understanding coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, and the fractionization of low first-ionization-potential (FIP) elements. Recently, significant progresses have been made in the detection of propagating Alfvénic waves in the solar chromosphere using two different methods: the imaging method and the spectroscopic method. The imaging method detects Alfvénic waves that oscillate in the direction perpendicular to the line of sight, and the spectroscopic method, those that oscillates in the line of sight direction. We have applied the spectroscopic method to the imaging spectral data taken by the FISS on GST at Big Bear. As a result, we detected a number of propagating Alfvénic wave packets, and found that there are two distinct groups: three-minute period waves, and ten-minute period waves.

Properties of helioseismic acoustic oscillations (p modes) are modified by flows and magnetic fields in the solar interior, with frequencies, amplitudes and damping rates all varying systematically through the solar cycle. Crucially, now, we have a long enough baseline of helioseismic data to compare of the different activity cycles. We review recent efforts along these lines, from the impact of near-surface magnetic fields on p-mode frequencies to the evolution of the torsional oscillation and meridional circulation. We show that each activity cycle for which we have helioseismic data is slightly different in terms of the relationship between p mode frequencies and atmospheric proxies of activity, and in terms of the rotation and meridional circulation flows. However, many challenges remain, crucially including our ability to constrain flows and magnetic fields in the deep solar interior.

We study the evolution of the decaying active region NOAA 12708, from the photosphere up to the corona using high resolution, multi-wavelength GREGOR observations taken on May 9, 2018. We utilize spectropolarimetric scans of the 10830 Å spectral range by the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS), spectral imaging time-series in the Na ID2 spectral line by the GREGOR Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (GFPI) and context imaging in the Ca IIH and blue continuum by the High-resolution Fast Imager (HiFI). Context imaging in the UV/EUV from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) complements our dataset. The region under study contains one pore with a light-bridge, a few micro-pores and extended clusters of magnetic bright points. We study the magnetic structure from the photosphere up to the upper chromosphere through the spectropolarimetric observations in He II and Si I and through the magnetograms provided by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). The high-resolution photospheric images reveal the complex interaction between granular-scale convective motions and a range of scales of magnetic field concentrations in unprecedented detail. The pore itself shows a strong interaction with the convective motions, which eventually leads to its decay, while, under the influence of the photospheric flow field, micro-pores appear and disappear. Compressible waves are generated, which are guided towards the upper atmosphere along the magnetic field lines of the various magnetic structures within the field-of-view. Modelling of the He i absorption profiles reveals high velocity components, mostly associated with magnetic bright points at the periphery of the active region, many of which correspond to asymmetric Si I Stokes-V profiles revealing a coupling between upper photospheric and upper chromospheric dynamics. Time-series of Na ID2 spectral images reveal episodic high velocity components at the same locations. State-of-the-art multi-wavelength GREGOR observations allow us to track and understand the mechanisms at work during the decay phase of the active region.

Solar magnetic fields are believed to originate from the base of convection zone. However, it has been difficult to obtain convincing observational evidence of the magnetic fields in the deep convection zone. The goal of this study is to investigate whether solar meridional flows can be used to detect the magnetic-field effects. Meridional flows are axisymmetric flows on the meridional plane. Our result shows that the flow pattern in the entire convection zone changes significantly from solar minimum to maximum. The changes all centered around active latitudes, suggesting that the magnetic fields are responsible for the changes. The results indicate that the meridional flow can be used to detect the effects of magnetic field in the deep convection zone.

The results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal (lc2018).

We present initial results from three-dimensional (3-D) radiation hydrodynamical simulations for the Sun and targeted Sun-like stars. We plan to extend these simulations up to several stellar days to study p-mode excitation and damping processes. The level of variation of irradiance on the time scales spanned by our 3-D simulations will be studied too. Here we show results from a first analysis of the computational data we produced so far.

We analyze Sun-as-a-star observations spanning over solar cycles 22 – 24 from the ground-based network BiSON and solar cycles 23 – 24 collected by the space-based VIRGO and GOLF instruments on board the SoHO satellite. Using simultaneous observations from all three instruments, our analysis suggests that the structural and magnetic changes responsible for modifying the frequencies remained comparable between cycle 23 and cycle 24 but differ from cycle 22. Thus we infer that the magnetic layer of the Sun has become thinner since the beginning of cycle 23 and continues during the current cycle.

Using continuous observations for 22 years from ground-based network GONG and space-borne instruments MDI onboard SoHO and HMI onboard SDO, we report both global and local properties of the convection zone and their variations with time.

The earlier work on the oscillatory phenomena in sunspot structures have supported in validating the detection of long-period oscillations, which are generated by the photospheric umbral response to the five minute p-mode global oscillations. We report here on the events of 3- min umbral oscillations which are detected within a duration of one hour from a single-polarity sunspot of active region NOAA 12132. The umbral oscillations that appear first around umbral boundaries is speculated to be excited by the wavefronts at the umbral-penumbral boundaries due to sub-photospheric or photospheric granular buffetings. The appearance of the wavefronts in spiral structures suggests that the wave guides are twisted. In addition, the newly formed running penumbral waves (RPWs) appears to be connected with the preceding RPWs.

We present numerical MHD simulations of the dynamics of cool plasma condensations in a coronal loop. We address 2 mechanisms for how coronal rain leads to the excitation of coronal loop oscillations. We find that the combined effect of pressure gradients in the coronal loop plasma and magnetic tension force resulting from changes in magnetic field geometry explains observed sub-ballistic motion of coronal rain and longitudinal oscillations of the individual condensations. We also find that the condensations can excite sustained, small amplitude, vertically polarised transverse loop oscillations.

We present evidence of the excitation of vertically polarised transverse loop oscillations triggered by a catastrophic cooling of a coronal loop with two thirds of the loop mass comprising of cool rain mass. The nature and excitation of oscillations associated with coronal rain is not well understood. We consider observations of coronal rain using data from IRIS, SOT/Hinode and AIA/SDO in a bid to elucidate the excitation mechanism and evolution of wave characteristics. We apply an analytical model of wave-rain interaction, that predicts the inertial excitation amplitude of transverse loop oscillations as a function of the rain mass, to deduce the relative rain mass. It is consistent with the evolution of the oscillation period showing the loop losing a third of its mass due to falling coronal rain in a 10-15 minute time period.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has calculated a new generation of radiative opacities (OPLIB data using the ATOMIC code) for elements with atomic number Z = 1-30 with improved physics input, updated atomic data, and finer temperature grid to replace the Los Alamos LEDCOP opacities released in the year 2000. We calculate the evolution of standard solar models including these new opacities, and compare with models evolved using the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory OPAL opacities (Iglesias & Rogers 1996). We use the solar abundance mixture of Asplund et al. 2009. The Los Alamos ATOMIC opacities (Colgan et al. 2013a, 2013b, 2015) have steeper opacity derivatives than those of OPAL for temperatures and densities of the solar interior radiative zone. We compare the calculated nonadiabatic solar oscillation frequencies and solar interior sound speed to observed frequencies and helioseismic inferences. The calculated sound-speed profiles are similar for models evolved using either the updated Iben evolution code (see Guzik & Mussack 2010), or the MESA evolution code (Paxton et al. 2015). The LANL ATOMIC opacities partially mitigate the ‘solar abundance problem’.

The prototype telescope and instruments for the Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) are nearing completion at the Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife. In this contribution we describe the current status (autumn 2013) of the telescope and its instrumentation. Preliminary performance characteristics are presented for the high-resolution spectrograph based on daytime observations of the Sun and a 4 hour test series obtained for the sub-giant β Aquilae.

I present a personal view of Wojtek Dziembowski's scientific career, derived mainly from my direct interactions with Wojtek. Necessarily this presentation is biased towards the earlier days, partly because we interacted more then, and partly because the presentation after mine is by a local admirer who has been much more involved than I with Wojtek's later work.

Over more than twenty years, Wojtek Dziembowski and I collaborated on nearly fifty papers, which were concentrated in helioseismology through the 1980s and 1990s, but extended early into the new century. In this review, I discuss the most significant results of this collaboration and some of the underlying sociology that contributed to the intensity and longevity of our collaboration. Our work began with placing limits on the Sun's buried magnetic field and ended with extracting from the solar-cycle dependent oscillation frequency changes the roles (and net result) of competing dynamical drivers of changes in the solar diameter.

We review recent observational and theoretical results on the fine structure and dynamics of solar prominences, beginning with an overview of prominence classifications, the proposal of possible new “funnel prominence” classification, and a discussion of the recent “solar tornado” findings. We then focus on quiescent prominences to review formation, down-flow dynamics, and the “prominence bubble” phenomena. We show new observations of the prominence bubble Rayleigh-Taylor instability triggered by a Kelvin-Helmholtz shear flow instability occurring along the bubble boundary. Finally we review recent studies on plasma composition of bubbles, emphasizing that differential emission measure (DEM) analysis offers a more quantitative analysis than photometric comparisons. In conclusion, we discuss the relation of prominences to coronal magnetic flux ropes, proposing that prominences can be understood as partially ionized condensations of plasma forming the return flow of a general magneto-thermal convection in the corona.

Prominence oscillations have been mostly detected using Doppler velocity, although there are also claimed detections by means of the periodic variations of half-width or line intensity. Our main aim here is to explore the relationship between spectral indicators such as Doppler shift, line intensity and line half-width and the linear perturbations excited in a simple prominence model.

We propose and use Bayesian techniques for the determination of physical parameters in solar prominence plasmas, combining observational and theoretical properties of waves and oscillations. The Bayesian approach also enables to perform model comparison to assess how plausible alternative physical models/mechanisms are in view of data.

We study the phase mixing and dissipation of a packet of standing shear Alfvén waves localized in a region with non-uniform Alfvén background velocity. We investigate the validity of the exponential damping law in time, exp (–At3), presented by Heyvaerts & Priest (1983) for different ranges of Lundquist, S, and Reynolds, R, numbers. Our numerical results shows that it is valid for (R,S) ≥ 107.

The surface of the Sun is continually oscillating due to sound waves encroaching on it from the interior. Measurements of the surface velocity are used to infer some of the properties of the regions through which the sound waves have propagated. Traditionally, this has been done by using a modal decomposition of the surface disturbances. However, the use of ray descriptions, in the form of acoustic holography or time–distance helioseismology, provides an alternative approach which may reveal more detailed information about the properties of local phenomena such as sunspots and active regions. Fundamental to any such treatment is determining the correct ray paths in a given atmosphere. In the simplest approach, the ray paths are constructed to minimise the travel time between two points (Fermat's principle). However, such an approach is only valid in the high frequency limit, ω » ωc, N, where ωc is the acoustic cut-off and N the Brunt-VÄisÄlÄ frequency. Although ωc is often included in time– distance calculations, and N occasionally, the same is not true of acoustic holography. We argue that this raises concerns about image sharpness. As illustrations, representative ray paths are integrated in a realistic solar model to show that the Fermat approximation performs poorly for frequencies of helioseismic interest. We also briefly discuss the importance of the Brunt-VÄisÄlÄ frequency to the time–distance diagram.

There is increasingly strong observational evidence that slow magnetoacoustic modes arise in the solar atmosphere. Solar magneto-seismology is a novel tool to derive otherwise directly un-measurable properties of the solar atmosphere when magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave theory is compared to wave observations. Here, MHD wave theory is further developed illustrating how information about the magnetic and density structure along coronal loops can be determined by measuring the frequencies of the slow MHD oscillations. The application to observations of slow magnetoacoustic waves in coronal loops is discussed.