News & Events

We welcome Dr. Mike Wiltberger as HAO Interim Director. His 22 years at HAO, combined with his scientific expertise and inter‑agency experience at NSF, make him exceptionally well prepared for this leadership role.

In December 2025, NASA 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.

"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. 

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.