HAO News

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.

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.

The journal Astronomy & Astrophysics recently published a study on the development of a new method for analyzing the stability of sunspots. As part of this study, an international team—led by scientists from Germany in collaboration with colleagues from Sweden, the U.S. and Spain—applied this new method to observations with the German GREGOR solar telescope.

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.