High Resolution,
Simulations & Observations of the
Lower Solar Atmosphere

During the first half of 2019 the High Resolution, Simulations & Observations of the  Lower Solar Atmosphere group has been present in several academic and social activities meeting with research groups from all around the world. In this post we wish to share with you, our readers, some of our activities carried out in this period of time. Starting the year, in February, the group's head Dominik Utz was visiting the National Astronomical Observatory of Colombia in Bogotá, where he was discussing with different master students in Astronomy and undergraduate students in Physics about future solar physics works in collaboration with our group in Graz, Austria. As well as giving two seminar talks about the recent observation campaign the group carried out and the future European Solar Telescope (EST). In April, most of the members of the group were visiting the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Postdam where the third workshop for the analysis of data from the observati...

During the first week of March (from    5th to the 8th) we organised a workshop for analysing the data taken during our GREGOR campaign of 2017 . Furthermore, the workshop was also intended to strengthen the existing collaborations and develop further collaborations with our group but also introduce new students to the fascinating field of solar physics. The workshop was hosted and held at the Kanzelhöhe Solar Observatory (Institute of Physics - Karl-Franzes University of Graz / Austria ). The main theme of the workshop was to revisit the obtained and by now reduced and calibrated data to take decisions about the future detailed scientific analysis and investigations to be carried out. As a side-note, members of our group, together and within an international team, observed our host star - the Sun - between September 18th -30th, 2017 by the GREGOR solar telescope as well as the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT). These two outstanding ground based...

The Sun features and still holds so many secrets that we need additional observations and investigations to understand our heavenly body fully. To contribute to this challenging task also our group took up the task to form an international experienced solar physicist team consisting of researchers from all around the world. Thus we have members from Japan, Europe such as from Germany, Slovakia or Austria (e.g. the PI of the Project) reaching as far as Colombia; In total this forms maybe one of the largest solar observation campaigns happening in this year. The campaign will be carried out on El Teide observatory with two of the main solar observatories in the world in the optical regime, namely the 1.5 m GREGOR telescope, the third largest ground-based aperture solar telescope (two slightly larger ones with ~ 1.6 m exist in the US) situated on Tenerife/Spain and the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT). This Project is coordinated by the Institute of Physics/IGAM, Karl-Franzens Univers...

Recently the International Conference of Physics Students (ICPS) was held in Turin/Italy from 7th to 14th of August this year. As every year it was a great success with about 400 students from all over the world but mostly from Europe. See also the Nature Editorial comment about it :D. Among many interesting social events and parties there have been talks from students for students and invited guest lectures from distinct senior researchers of all fields of physics. Not to forget the many exciting and inspiring lab tours and excursions to the wider surrounding of Turin. Special thanks goes to all of the students who voted for my oral contribution making it in this way to the second best "student" lecture, which is of course a bit of cheating, as I am not a student anymore ;-). Anyhow, thank you guys for the great time in this great Italian city and hope to see you soon again. By the way, next year this biggest event for physics students all over the world will be hosted by t...

A few days ago the 15th edition of the European Solar Physics Meeting ( ESPM-15 ) was held in Budapest/Hungary between September 4th - 8th, 2017. This is probably the most important and comprehensive event in Europe for solar physicists. The meeting features the presence of more than two hundred scientists mostly from Europe but also from the rest of the whole world. Thus scientists from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania were all present in this importnat meeting. The oral and poster contributions cover in principle all topics of interest for solar physcists starting from the interior of the Sun to the impact of solar storms and the solar wind on the planetary bodies of our solar system. Hence topics from simulations, observations, new instruments and telescopes, solar atmosphere, energetic events, and so on were discussed in detail during the five days that the meeting lasted. Three members of our group of High Resolution, Simulations & Observations of the Lower Sola...

The Solar Eclipse of 21st August 2017 On August the 21st, a solar eclipse will occur with important features, such as its duration and its visibility over populated parts of the USA. An (solar) eclipse happens when an opaque object like our Moon interferes with the light emitted by a luminous object, which in our case is the Sun. For reasons of astronomical coincidences, the Moon in our sky has approximately the same apparent size, although for this Eclipse, the Moon is a little closer to the Earth so that we end up with a larger apparent size, such that it is possible for the Moon to cover completely the sunlight during roughly 2 minutes. This is an exceptional opportunity for scientists considering that the eclipse can be observed over a long stretch of populated area throughout large stretches of the USA. Thus the total time of possible observations of the eclipse is extended over a period of about 90 minutes from the created and proje...

Dear Readers, Dear Friends & Colleagues, it is our pleasure to welcome you on our new blog, which will be dedicated to the physics of the lower solar atmosphere. On the one hand we wish to present our own small group hosted here in Graz at the IGAM of the Karl-Franzens University of Graz. On the other hand we like to report about what is going on in the field in general and in other groups. Stay tuned and hope to report to you soon on behalf of the whole team Dominik