SDM: Modelling & Observing the Lower Solar Atmosphere | Non-Fellow Ticket

Recent advances in both observational and numerical techniques have revealed the wealth of physical phenomena present in the solar chromosphere, and its critical role in energy transport and heating of the solar atmosphere, however the relative importance and interplay between many of these terms is still to be determined. Whilst a geometrically thin layer (~2Mm), the chromosphere typically spans nine vertical pressure scale heights, with dramatically varying ionisation fractions, and given its increased density radiates more energy than the corona. As our understanding of the lower solar atmosphere advances, it has become overwhelmingly clear that the traditional methods for modelling the solar atmosphere are insufficient to explain observed phenomena and quantify energy fluxes from ubiquitous events, such as spicules and flux emergence. As such, modelling has begun to incorporate non-MHD-like phenomena such as radiative transfer and partial ionisation to more-accurately capture the salient physics and accurately model the solar atmosphere. However, implementing many essential extensions, such as optically-thick radiative transfer and partial ionisation, is a nontrivial task and continues to complicate any confrontation between theory with observations.

In anticipation of the upcoming next generation of observational and numerical infrastructure (e.g., DKIST, EST, EUVST, SAMS) we propose this focused session on the physics and observational counterparts of plasma in the lower solar atmosphere. Our main goals are to facilitate a comprehensive summary of recent successes and discrepancies to highlight areas on which to focus in the coming years, and how to best utilise the latest techniques to understand out enigmatic Sun within available computational and observational limits.

This session will cover a range of topics related to recent advances in modelling and observing the lower solar atmosphere. Specifically, we will discuss the following:

1. Advances in modelling solar plasma and the numerical pathways for deciphering the enigmatic solar chromosphere
2. Advances and latest insights from observations and the state-of-the-art for observing the lower solar atmosphere
3. Preparing for the next generation of infrastructure to support research, e.g., exascale computing, GPU acceleration, machine learning.

We are planning on following the RAS advice for the timetable and having two sessions accoring to the following schedule:

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee

10:30 - 13:00 Morning Session (a)

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch (b)

14:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Session

15:30 - 16:00 Tea

Image Credit: Snow, B. 2024

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