Solar Atmospheric Modelling, adjunct professor position

Solar magnetism lies at the root of most solar and heliospheric physics. The intricate structure of the solar field, the activity cycle and the influence of the field on the heliosphere represent major quests of (astro) physics which bear directly on the human environment. The sun's magnetic field is generated by enigmatic dynamo processes in the solar interior, is organized into the highly complex patterns of solar activity observed in the solar photosphere, dominates the structure of the outer solar atmosphere (chromosphere, transition region, corona), regulates the solar wind, and affects the whole extended heliosphere into the Earth's upper atmosphere. A wealth of observational data is now available through the highly successful SOHO satellite, the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST), the Japanese Hinode satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrotraph (IRIS). More data will arrive through the projects under development such as Solar Orbiter, the Daniel K Inoue Solar Telescope (DKIST, previously ATST) and the European Solar Telescope (EST). The overwhelming complexity of these new high resolution observations underscores the need for a comensurate effort into theoretical modelling. The project ``Solar Atmospheric Modelling'' aims at being such an effort. This subproject within "Solar Atmospheric Modelling" concerns the continued hiring as adjunct professor of the principal investigator of IRIS, Dr. Bart De Pontieu. Through this hiring, the Oslo group strengthens the collaboration with the IRIS, SDO and HiC missions to ensure first hand access to state-of-the-art space observations. In 2016-2017 a number of papers were published with Bart De Pontieu and members of the solar physics group in Oslo as co-authors. One of them was a paper published in Science magazine on the origin of plasma jets in the solar chromosphere - a paper that lead to an interview of Bart De Pontieu and Mats Carlsson in New York Times "breaking news". In 2018 we have continued the collaboration with two visits to Oslo and 9 papers in refereed journals. We have continued the work on jets but also on other explosive phenomena, like UV bursts, and also on chromospheric heating. Bart De Pontieu visited Oslo in April and June 2019 and we have 7 papers in refereed journals in 2019 before the end of the project end of August. A highlight was the review article «New View of the Solar Chromosphere», by Carlsson, De Pontieu & Hansteen, published in Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics. This is the journal with the highest impact factor in Astronomy and all articles are by invitation only. Among other important results can be mentioned projects using machine learning for the inversion of IRIS data. Through the project, we have been able to determine the target of observation for IRIS during our observational campaigns at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) on La Palma.

Prosjektet har finansiert en professor II stilling for Bart De Pontieu, Principal Investigator for NASA SMEX satellitten Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). Flere fra instituttet har vært planleggere for IRIS og bestemt mål og oppsett for en ukes periode, sirka fem uker per år. Dette har gitt en unik innblikk i og innflytelse over driften av en solfysikk-satellitt for instituttets forskere og studenter. Bart De Pontieus opphold i Oslo og PhD-studenter og postdoktorers opphold ved hans hjeminstitusjon i Palo Alto har økt internasjonaliseringen av forskningen. Resultatene har gitt viktige bidrag til forståelsen av solens kromosfæren.

Solar magnetism lies at the root of most solar and heliospheric physics. The intricate structure of the solar field, the activity cycle and the influence of the field on the heliosphere represent major quests of (astro) physics which bear directly on the human environment. The sun's magnetic field is generated by enigmatic dynamo processes in the solar interior, is organized into the highly complex patterns of solar activity observed in the solar photosphere, dominates the structure of the outer solar atmosphere (chromosphere, transition region, corona), regulates the solar wind, and affects the whole extended heliosphere into the Earth's upper atmosphere. A wealth of observational data is now available through the highly successful SOHO satellite, the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST), the Japanese Hinode satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrotraph (IRIS). More data will arrive through the projects under development such as Solar Orbiter, the Daniel K Inoue Solar Telescope (DKIST, previously ATST) and the European Solar Telescope (EST). The overwhelming complexity of these new high resolution observations underscores the need for a comensurate effort into theoretical modelling. The project ``Solar Atmospheric Modelling'' aims at being such an effort. Through the first years of SAM we have developed an expertise that is much sought after internationally. We have developed the necessary tools and codes to treat 3D radiation-magneto-hydrodynamics problems with a realistic treatment of the radiation. We participate in various NASA programs. However, financial support from these programs is limited to American expenditures. This project forms a matching group in Norway in order to also locally harvest the investments already made. Such a modelling effort is also the ideal complement to the European Data Center for Hinode that is located at the Institute.