HAO News

On 14 October 2023, a captivating annular eclipse graced the skies from Oregon to Texas in the U.S. It was a privilege to not only witness this celestial spectacle but also engage with a curious audience that included a team of solar physicists from both the High Altitude Observatory at NCAR and the National Solar Observatory. Visiting students and/or voluntary collaborators were also among the spectators.

Breno Raphaldini, Mausumi Dikpati, and Scott W. McIntosh are highlighted in the HMI Science Nuggets. Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) magnetic field synoptic maps are used to evaluate the magnetic field structures’ organization and propagation as a function of time and latitude. It is demonstrated that the organization of longitudinal structures observed on synoptic maps is proportional to the level of activity at given latitudes.

HAO director Holly Gilbert comments: "There was great energy around the UCoMP Users Workshop last week, with many visitors coming from around the world to participate. Thanks to those who made it a success, including many early career folks!" The first-ever UCoMP Data User’s Workshop was held the week of August 29 and was a great success. The purpose was to introduce UCoMP to the community and to organize working groups to collaborate on UCoMP first results to be published in a topical issue of Solar Physics.

The upcoming solar eclipses and excitement of COSMO development have us so giddy that we broke into song (literally). We invite you to watch the result!

The research article  “Atmospheric and Ionospheric Responses to Hunga-Tonga Volcano Eruption Simulated by WACCM-X”, was selected for featuring as an Editor’s Highlight on Eos.org. Fewer than 2 per cent of papers are selected to be featured in this way.

**Their research article was just published on Eos.org. In addition, see HAO's "Latest Research Highlights".

As part of HAO's DEI initiative, we recently sponsored nine 4th & 5th grade girls (and 1 boy) and 8 parents from Port Towns Elementary School in Bladensburg, MD, a predominantly low-income area near Washington, DC, to travel to Boulder and participate in the KidWind Challenge at CU. They had won the regional competition, which qualified them for a chance to compete here with their wind turbine.

The first scientific paper using data from the Visible SpectroPolarimeter (ViSP) has been published. The Inouye Solar Telescope's ViSP reveals new insight into the magnetic properties of waves and shocks as observed as "umbral flashes" within a small sunspot.

ViSP was developed at HAO and this publication is co-authored by HAO scientists Roberto Casini, Alfred de Wijn, and Philip Judge.

The Heliophysics Summer School is run by NASA's Living With a Star program and UCAR/CPAESS since 2007; focusing on the physics of space weather events.
Apply for this summer 2023—deadline is
3 March 2023, see website.

We regret that the Space Weather Summer School is not meeting in 2023, but we hope to resume in 2024.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the world’s largest aerospace professional society, has selected Dartmouth professor and HAO Senior Research Associate Mary Hudson to be a member of the Class of 2023 AIAA Associate Fellows.