Consolidated Grant in Solar Physics

在这个提议中，我们研究动态太阳，测量和理解等离子体，粒子和过程在其大气层和扩展日光层，它创建。我们专注于太阳物理学中几个未解决的关键问题，这些问题也是对宇宙等离子体整体进行更广泛和更深入理解的原型。我们的顶级问题是：太阳是如何在其磁化的大气层中储存和释放能量的，我们可以通过计算机模拟和研究发射的辐射来了解这个过程吗？高能辐射粒子在太阳耀斑和行星际空间中的行为如何？它们是如何被加速的，它们是否被发射，它们在耀斑及其对地球的影响中是否起着关键作用？磁场是太阳大气层中发生的一切的关键。集中的磁场区域穿过太阳表面进入大气层。在这里，它们与预先存在的磁场相互作用，结果是被称为耀斑的强烈能量爆发，它加速了亚原子粒子（电子和离子），导致数百万度的加热，还可能导致磁化等离子体被驱逐到太空中，这可能导致破坏性的“太空天气”。耀斑具有独特的辐射特征，这与能量从日冕沿沿着磁场传输到太阳表面并进入遥远的日光层的方式密切相关，并在其过程中转换为其他形式。通过解释太阳稀薄的外层大气（日冕）和稠密的低层大气（色球层）的辐射，我们可以理解耀斑中发生了什么。更一般地说，太阳磁场在太阳大气层中产生了偏心和动态的形状，例如旋转的“龙卷风状”结构，以及被称为对流的凉爽物质云，这些云显然是漂浮的我们的方案将来自空间和地面望远镜的观测数据与理论和数值模拟相结合，以解决所有这些问题，它涉及广泛的技术问题，从辐射穿过等离子体的模型到高能粒子加速;从电磁波到相对论粒子束;从图像处理到微弱信号的统计分析;从数学“纸笔”计算到高级数值模拟。我们将利用所有这些技能来解决当前努力的核心问题，以更好地了解我们最近的星星。

In this proposal we study the dynamic Sun, to measure and understand the plasmas, particles and processes in its atmosphere and the extended heliosphere that it creates. We focus on several key unsolved problems in solar physics, that are also prototypes for a wider and deeper understanding of cosmic plasmas as a whole. Our top-level questions are: How does the Sun store and release energy in its magnetised atmosphere, and what can we learn about this process by computer simulations and by studying the radiation that is emitted? How do high-energy radiating particles behave in solar flares and in interplanetary space? How are they accelerated, are they beamed and do they play a key role in flares and their terrestrial impact? The magnetic field is key to everything that happens in the Sun's atmosphere. Concentrated magnetic regions emerge through the Sun's surface and into its atmosphere. Here they interact with the pre-existing magnetic field and the result is intense bursts of energy known as flares, which accelerate sub-atomic particles (electrons and ions), cause heating to millions of degrees, and can also lead to expulsion of magnetised plasma into space, which can cause damaging `space weather'. Flares have distinctive radiation signatures that are closely related to the way that energy is transmitted along the magnetic field from the corona down to the solar surface and out into the distant heliosphere, and converted into other forms as it goes. By interpreting this radiation both from the Sun's tenuous outer atmosphere - its corona - and its denser lower atmosphere - its chromosphere - we can understand what is happening in a flare. More generally, solar magnetic fields create eccentric and dynamic shapes in the solar atmosphere, for example swirling `tornado-like' structures, and clouds of cool material called prominences, apparently floating (though in reality supported by magnetic forces) above the solar surface.Our programme combines observational data from space-based and ground-based telescopes with theoretical and numerical modelling to address all of these topics, and spans a wide range of technical problems, from the modeling of radiation moving through a plasma to high-energy particle acceleration; from electromagnetic waves to relativistic particle beams; from image processing to statistical analysis of weak signals, and from mathematical `pen-and-paper' calculations to advanced numerical simulations. We will bring all these skills to bear on questions at the heart of current efforts to better understand our nearest star.