Living with(in) a star

Rebecca Centeno High Altitude Observatory

Credit: Daniel López(El cielo de Canarias)

NASA/GOES

image taken from ISS

http://www.gibsontreecare.com/

Credit: Daniel López(El cielo de Canarias)

4

Sunspots

Scheiner, 1625

5

Scheiner, 1625NST/BBSO

Sunspots

Solar Cycle

SOHO/NASA

Solar Cycle

Space Weather

Image credit: NASA

Coronal Mass EjectionsSolar FlaresHigh Speed StreamsSolar Energetic Particles

Image credit: NASA

Space Weather

Sunspots are the main sources of the Sun's short-term variability

Filament eruption (August 31, 2012)

SDO/AIA

Filament eruption (August 31, 2012)

SDO/AIA

Heliospheric current sheet(source: Lempfi, NASA GSFC)

Heliospheric current sheet(source: Lempfi, NASA GSFC)

Credit: Windows to the Universe

BE

Heliospheric current sheet(source: Lempfi, NASA GSFC)

Credit: Windows to the Universe

BE

BIMF

Forecasting Space Weather

• Solar dynamo (generation of the Sun’s magnetic field)

• 3D topology and evolution of sunspot fields.

Schrijver & TitleMuñoz-Jaramillo

Forecasting Space Weather

• Solar dynamo (generation of the Sun’s magnetic field)

• 3D topology and evolution of sunspot fields.

• What makes the magnetic fields of sunspots erupt?

Forecasting Space Weather

• How much energy is released in the eruption? How will it propagate outwards into the interplanetary medium?

• Determining the direction of B at the magnetopause.

SunEarth

C. de Forest (SwRI)

1362 kW/m²

The Pale Blue Dot, 1990(picture of the Earth taken by Voyager 1

as it was about to leave the Solar System)

“All of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our home.”

- Carl Sagan