HAO News

AAS Nova Editor and Deputy Press Officer thanks Mausumi Dikpati for her recent publication titled Mother’s Day Superstorms: Pre- and Post-Storm Evolutionary Patterns of ARs 13664/8. AAS Nova is highlighting Mausumi's Mother’s Day Superstorm image on their website.

NSF UCAR highlights new research that uses unparalleled data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST). HAO's Robert Jarolim is one of the authors.

Yesterday, the weather conditions in Wanaka, NZ proved favorable for a successful HiWind (SN11) launch. The HAO staff received this news with great jubilation. We are proud and grateful for your achievement! 
 

HAO is proud to announce that our director, Holly Gilbert, is the recipient of the 2025 Irene González Hernández Prize. As quoted from the SPD website announcement..."The Irene González Hernández Prize, established in 2024, celebrates mid-career scientists for transformative contributions to solar research, leadership, and community service." Congratulations Holly!

Matthias Rempel, et al. combine cutting-edge solar astronomy with advanced computer science to analyze data from the world’s largest ground-based solar telescope located atop Haleakalā, Maui. See featured story from the University of Hawaiʻi News. The team’s research recently published in Astrophysical Journal focuses on their development of deep learning models that rapidly analyze vast amounts of data from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. 

HAO scientist Mausumi Dikpati's recent significant publication entitled "A Magnetohydrodynamic Mechanism for the Formation of Solar Polar Vortices" is highlighted by NSF-NCAR news website. Dikpati and her co-authors report the first magnetohydrodynamic nonlinear simulations for the formation and evolution of solar polar vortices using a near-surface magnetohydrodynamic shallow-water model. 

For the first time, scientists, including  lead author Newkirk graduate student Zihao Yang, have taken near-daily measurements of the Sun’s global coronal magnetic field, a region of the Sun that has only been observed irregularly in the past. The resulting observations are providing valuable insights into the processes that drive the intense solar storms that impact fundamental technologies, and thus lives and livelihoods, here on Earth. See NSF NCAR News article.

On April 8, 2024, the day of the total solar eclipse, HAO observers Ben Berkey (site manager) and Lisa Perez-Gonzalez flew by helicopter to the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) located at 11,200 feet on the north face of Mauna Loa to observe the Sun’s corona using the MLSO coronagraphs.

The total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, was a great opportunity for the team of HAO, NSO, and NOAA scientists and collaborators to travel to a location on the totality path with the goal of running unique science experiments. Using additional telescopes, binoculars, and outreach materials, we were able to capture the eclipse throughout its phases and share our passion with a very excited local crowd.