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Colloquium: Predictability of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere during Sudden Stratospheric Warmings - Jan 21, 2026
Latest News
For release in July, the book "Physical foundations of spectroscopy" by Philip Judge
"Physical foundations of spectroscopy," by Philip Judge, highlights how spectroscopy is firmly anchored in physical foundations, countering modern trends leading to over-specialization. Published by Oxford University Press as a text in their master series in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
NASA selects NSF NCAR Heliophysics Mission for Continued Development
NASA has selected the Chromospheric Magnetism Explorer (CMEx) for an extended period of concept development. The $150 million mission would fill a critical solar observational gap, generating information on conditions that lead to solar eruptions, advancing our knowledge of the solar magnetic field, and improving space weather modeling capabilities. It would also be the first Explorer-sized spacecraft mission ever led by NSF NCAR.
New AI Based Methods for 3D Reconstruction of the Solar Photosphere
In a collaborative effort researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA), the NSF funded National Solar Observatory and NSF NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory developed a new artificial intelligence based method to reconstruct the magnetic field in the solar atmosphere.
Latest Research Highlights
Behaviors of Interhemispheric Coupling in Different Boreal Winter Subseasons During Major SSWs
Zishun Qiao, Nicholas Pedatella, Alan Liu, Han-Li Liu, Joseph Mclnerney investigate the behaviors of the typical interhemispheric coupling (IHC) in different boreal winter subseasons during major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW).
Influence of the Stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the Seasonal Variation in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Based on a Long-Term Reanalysis JAWARA
D. Koshin and K. Sato discuss the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) in terms of the semiannual oscillations (SAOs) around the stratopause and the mesopause, and the tides, using the long-term global reanalysis for the whole neutral atmosphere over 19 years of 2004–23.
Polarization fringes in optical systems: a compendium
R. Casini and D. M. Harrington review the fundamental mechanisms that are responsible for instrumental artifacts that can affect the accuracy of optical designs conceived for high-sensitivity spectroscopy and polarimetry. Modeling examples are used to highlight the salient characteristics of polarization fringes, as well as to assess how approximate treatments such as this compare to exact but more computational expensive formulations of the problem such as Berreman's calculus.