It has been a prevailing picture that active regions on the solar surface originate from a strong toroidal magnetic field stored in the overshoot region at the base of the solar convection zone, generated by a deep seated solar dynamo mechanism. This article reviews the studies in regard to how the toroidal magnetic field can destabilize and rise through the convection zone to form the observed solar

The Sun, as an active star, is the driver of energetic phenomena that structure interplanetary space and affect planetary atmospheres. The effects of Space Weather on Earth and the solar system is of increasing importance as human spaceflight is preparing for lunar and Mars missions. This review is focusing on the solar perspective of the Space Weather relevant phenomena, coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

The Sun provides a critical benchmark for the general study of stellar structure and evolution. Also, knowledge about the internal properties of the Sun is important for the understanding of solar atmospheric phenomena, including the solar magnetic cycle. Here I provide a brief overview of the theory of stellar structure and evolution, including the physical processes and parameters that are involved

How has the solar wind evolved to reach what it is today? In this review, I discuss the long-term evolution of the solar wind, including the evolution of observed properties that are intimately linked to the solar wind: rotation, magnetism and activity. Given that we cannot access data from the solar wind 4 billion years ago, this review relies on stellar data, in an effort to better place the Sun

The structure and dynamics of the solar corona is dominated by the magnetic field. In most areas in the corona magnetic forces are so dominant that all non-magnetic forces such as plasma pressure gradients and gravity can be neglected in the lowest order. This model assumption is called the force-free field assumption, as the Lorentz force vanishes. This can be obtained by either vanishing electric

Parker (Astrophys J 174:499, 1972) put forward a hypothesis regarding the fundamental nature of equilibrium magnetic fields in astrophysical plasmas. He proposed that if an equilibrium magnetic field is subjected to an arbitrary, small perturbation, then—under ideal plasma dynamics—the resulting magnetic field will in general not relax towards a smooth equilibrium, but rather, towards a state containing

This paper reviews recent advances and current debates in modeling the solar cycle as a hydromagnetic dynamo process. Emphasis is placed on (relatively) simple dynamo models that are nonetheless detailed enough to be comparable to solar cycle observations. After a brief overview of the dynamo problem and of key observational constraints, I begin by reviewing the various magnetic field regeneration

Nearly all energy generated by fusion in the solar core is ultimately radiated away into space in the solar atmosphere, while the remaining energy is carried away in the form of neutrinos. The exchange of energy between the solar gas and the radiation field is thus an essential ingredient of atmospheric modeling. The equations describing these interactions are known, but their solution is so computationally

A review of solar cycle prediction methods and their performance is given, including early forecasts for Cycle 25. The review focuses on those aspects of the solar cycle prediction problem that have a bearing on dynamo theory. The scope of the review is further restricted to the issue of predicting the amplitude (and optionally the epoch) of an upcoming solar maximum no later than right after the start

Sunspot observations are available in fairly good numbers since 1610, after the invention of the telescope. This review is concerned with those sunspot observations of which longer records and drawings in particular are available. Those records bear information beyond the classical sunspot numbers or group sunspot numbers. We begin with a brief summary on naked-eye sunspot observations, in particular

The solar wind is a magnetized plasma and as such exhibits collective plasma behavior associated with its characteristic spatial and temporal scales. The characteristic length scales include the size of the heliosphere, the collisional mean free paths of all species, their inertial lengths, their gyration radii, and their Debye lengths. The characteristic timescales include the expansion time, the

Until the last few decades, investigations of stellar interiors had been restricted to theoretical studies only constrained by observations of their global properties and external characteristics. However, in the last 30 years the field has been revolutionized by the ability to perform seismic investigations of stellar interiors. This revolution begun with the Sun, where helioseismology has been yielding

Strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections, here defined not only as the bursts of electromagnetic radiation but as the entire process in which magnetic energy is released through magnetic reconnection and plasma instability, emanate from active regions (ARs) in which high magnetic non-potentiality resides in a wide variety of forms. This review focuses on the formation and evolution of flare-productive

Coronal bright points (CBPs) are a fundamental class of solar activity. They represent a set of low-corona small-scale loops with enhanced emission in the extreme-ultraviolet and X-ray spectrum that connect magnetic flux concentrations of opposite polarities. CBPs are one of the main building blocks of the solar atmosphere outside active regions uniformly populating the solar atmosphere including active

The quiet Sun is the region of the solar surface outside of sunspots, pores, and plages. In continuum intensity it appears dominated by granular convection. However, in polarized light the quiet Sun exhibits impressive magnetic activity on a broad range of scales, from the 30,000 km of supergranular cells down to the smallest magnetic features of about 100 km resolvable with current instruments. Quiet

Magnetic fields suspend the relatively cool material of solar prominences in an otherwise hot corona. A comprehensive understanding of solar prominences ultimately requires complex and dynamic models, constrained and validated by observations spanning the solar atmosphere. We obtain the core of this understanding from observations that give us information about the structure of the “magnetic skeleton”

Supergranulation is a fluid-dynamical phenomenon taking place in the solar photosphere, primarily detected in the form of a vigorous cellular flow pattern with a typical horizontal scale of approximately 30–35 Mm, a dynamical evolution time of 24–48 h, a strong 300–400 m/s (rms) horizontal flow component and a much weaker 20–30 m/s vertical component. Supergranulation was discovered more than 60 years

X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) observations of the outer solar atmosphere have been used for many decades to measure the fundamental parameters of the solar plasma. This review focuses on the optically thin emission from the solar atmosphere, mostly found at UV and X-ray (XUV) wavelengths, and discusses some of the diagnostic methods that have been used to measure electron densities, electron temperatures

The history and present state of large-scale magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the solar corona and the solar wind with steady or quasi-steady coronal physics is reviewed. We put the evolution of ideas leading to the recognition of the existence of an expanding solar atmosphere into historical context. The development and main features of the first generation of global corona and solar wind models are

Prominences are intriguing, but poorly understood, magnetic structures of the solar corona. The dynamics of solar prominences has been the subject of a large number of studies, and of particular interest is the study of prominence oscillations. Ground- and space-based observations have confirmed the presence of oscillatory motions in prominences and they have been interpreted in terms of magnetohydrodynamic

Space and astrophysical plasmas often develop into a turbulent state and exhibit nearly random and stochastic motions. While earlier studies emphasize more on understanding the energy spectrum of turbulence in the one-dimensional context (either in the frequency or the wavenumber domain), recent achievements in plasma turbulence studies provide an increasing amount of evidence that plasma turbulence

This paper focuses on the interactions between the fast solar wind from coronal holes and the intervening slower solar wind, leading to the creation of stream interaction regions that corotate with the Sun and may persist for many solar rotations. Stream interaction regions have been observed near 1 AU, in the inner heliosphere (at \(\sim 0.3\)–1 AU) by the Helios spacecraft, in the outer and distant

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are large-scale heliospheric transients that originate from the Sun. When an ICME is sufficiently faster than the preceding solar wind, a shock wave develops ahead of the ICME. The turbulent region between the shock and the ICME is called the sheath region. ICMEs and their sheaths and shocks are all interesting structures from the fundamental plasma physics

The Sun and other stars are magnetic: magnetism pervades their interiors and affects their evolution in a variety of ways. In the Sun, both the fields themselves and their influence on other phenomena can be uncovered in exquisite detail, but these observations sample only a moment in a single star’s life. By turning to observations of other stars, and to theory and simulation, we may infer other aspects

Presented here is a review of present knowledge of the long-term behavior of solar activity on a multi-millennial timescale, as reconstructed using the indirect proxy method. The concept of solar activity is discussed along with an overview of the special indices used to quantify different aspects of variable solar activity, with special emphasis upon sunspot number. Over long timescales, quantitative

Solar flares are observed at all wavelengths from decameter radio waves to gamma-rays beyond 1 GeV. This review focuses on recent observations in EUV, soft and hard X-rays, white light, and radio waves. Space missions such as RHESSI, Yohkoh, TRACE, SOHO, and more recently Hinode and SDO have enlarged widely the observational base. They have revealed a number of surprises: Coronal sources appear before

Since the early 1970s, inversion techniques have become the most useful tool for inferring the magnetic, dynamic, and thermodynamic properties of the solar atmosphere. Inversions have been proposed in the literature with a sequential increase in model complexity: astrophysical inferences depend not only on measurements but also on the physics assumed to prevail both on the formation of the spectral

Solar energetic particles, or SEPs, from suprathermal (few keV) up to relativistic (\(\sim \)few GeV) energies are accelerated near the Sun in at least two ways: (1) by magnetic reconnection-driven processes during solar flares resulting in impulsive SEPs, and (2) at fast coronal-mass-ejection-driven shock waves that produce large gradual SEP events. Large gradual SEP events are of particular interest

The seismic study of the Sun and other stars offers a unique window into the interior of these stars. Thanks to helioseismology, we know the structure of the Sun to admirable precision. In fact, our knowledge is good enough to use the Sun as a laboratory. We have also been able to study the dynamics of the Sun in great detail. Helioseismic data also allow us to probe the changes that take place in

The determination of photospheric abundances in late-type stars from spectroscopic observations is a well-established field, built on solid theoretical foundations. Improving those foundations to refine the accuracy of the inferred abundances has proven challenging, but progress has been made. In parallel, developments on instrumentation, chiefly regarding multi-object spectroscopy, have been spectacular