My Research
From Theory to Reality
Seismology of Flares and Energetic Events - Space Weather Prediction
The Sun is an active star that's variability evinces in periodic magnetic field changes (so-called 11-year activity cycle). Other manifestation of the Sun's activity are the high-energetic impulsive explosions such as flares and Coronal Mass Ejections. These are the most tense phanomena, which take place inside the solar atmosphere. The discoveries in the past two decades show that the internal solar pulsations can propagate upwards along the magnetic field lines, carring a lot of energy towards the chromosphere and solar corona. These waves dirven by the internal convection can be a trigger that implies the energetic phanomena. Implementation of helioseismological methods allows to determine the physical conditions below and around the active regions to understand why complex magnetic areas can produce stong plasma ejections. We aim to mesure in advance the mechanism that triggers vigorous eruptions in order to provide a space-weather forecast.
Helioseismology
Currently our understanding of the solar interior is very limited. The magnetic field generated inside the Sun penetrates through the various layers of the solar atmosphere and corona. Nevertheless the Sun is continuously oscillating in time, with a broad range of frequencies. Interestingly, these sound waves do not only travel along the solar surface. Depending on their frequency they can propagate deep into the solar interior or travel upward in to the solar atmosphere. The helioseismology allow to investigate solar acoustic waves in both directions. Global and Local Helioseismlogy is nowadays one of the most powerful tools for detection of acoustic waves.
Observation of the Sun
The base of solar physics are the scientific data comming from the solar observations. Dynamic processes that occur inside the solar atmosphere are multi-dimensional, and related to the magnetic field configuration. Therefore a research combining polarimetric measurements and the spectroscopy or imaging is nowadays the most requested. The ground-based observations in various spectral lines are very challenging. The reason for that is becuse of earth's atmosphere, which produce a lot of convetive turbulent motions, that distore observation. As a Prime Investigator on the largest european solar telescopes GREEGOR and Vacuum Tower Telescope, I have a lot of practical and scietific exprience in solar observing campaigns. Planning my coordinated observations with ground-based and space-borne telescopes is a main element of my research projects. I am still expanding my competences in this field.
