Observing and Modeling the Sun-Earth System

J. M. Borrero; A. Pastor Yabar; M. Schmassmann; M. Rempel; M. van Noort; M. Collados apply the FIRTEZ Stokes inversion code to spectropolarimetric observations to infer the magnetic and thermodynamic parameters in two sunspots located at the disk center. Their research helps to explain why sunspots are such long-lived structures capable of surviving on the solar surface for days or even full solar rotations.

Matthias Rempel, et al., analyze images acquired with the Visible Broadband Imager using the G-band channel to investigate the characteristics of fine-scale striations in the photosphere and compare them with state-of-the-art radiation-MHD simulations at similar spatial resolution. The striation patterns can be used as valuable diagnostics for studying the finest-scale structure of the photospheric magnetic field.

Dai Koshin, Nick Pedatella, and Anne Smith describe the coupling between the winter stratosphere in the Southern Hemisphere and the northern upper mesosphere as seen in a long-term whole atmosphere model simulation revealing interannual variation is associated with the phase of the intraseasonal oscillation in the equatorial mesosphere and lower thermosphere.