Solar Scientists to Gather July 8-11 at Montana State University

Solar physicists from around the world will gather July 8 through 11 at Montana State University to discuss their latest discoveries, new studies and possible collaborations.

As many as 300 scientists from the United States, India, China and elsewhere could attend the 44th annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, said local organizers David McKenzie and Dana Longcope. Most of their events will be held in MSU’s Strand Union Building in Bozeman.

The conference will cover every aspect of the sun, from the interior where its energy and magnetic fields are produced to the outer atmosphere where solar flares and mass ejections occur, McKenzie said.

Among other things, participants will hear China’s plans for solar observation. They will discuss new spacecraft missions, high-altitude balloon flights, long-term missions and ground-based technology. They will receive an update on a new U.S. solar telescope to be built on top of an extinct volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Approximately 13 feet in diameter, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope will be the world’s largest solar telescope until the Chinese build the telescope they are planning, Longcope said. The Chinese telescope will be approximately 26 feet in diameter.

Conference attendees will focus particular attention on the chromosphere. It is one of the lower layers of the sun’s atmosphere and remains a mystery in many ways, McKenzie said.

The public is invited to attend a lecture titled “Our Explosive Sun.” The lecture be aimed at a general audience. Speaking from 7 to 8 p.m. July 8 in Bozeman’s Emerson Cultural Center, Tom Berger of the National Solar Observatory will explain how scientists in the 1800s discovered that activity on the sun affects the Earth and what that relationship does today. Solar flares can interfere with satellites and knock out communication systems and power on Earth, for example. Even in 1859, a solar storm started fires in telegraph offices. Berger’s talk will incorporate photos and movies of the sun.

This will be the second time that MSU has hosted the SPD summer meeting. The last time was in 1997.

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For more information about the 2013 meeting, go to http://solar.physics.montana.edu/SPD/SPD2013/