Preview of "Keeping an Eye on the Sun's Magnetism"
Channel: NSF NCAR & UCAR Science Education
Date: 23/10/2019

This video previews NCAR scientist Rebecca Centeno's Explorer Series lecture "Keeping an Eye on the Sun's Magnetism." To the human eye, the Sun appears as a ball of light suspended in the daytime sky. In spite of its deceiving stillness, a closer look shows us that the Sun's atmosphere is alive and riddled with activity. Every second of every minute, strong winds emanating from the Sun's surface relentlessly buffet the interplanetary medium. Occasionally, the Sun brews large storms that expel vast amounts of hot material and radiation into space. All of this activity, known as Space Weather, puts our increasingly vulnerable technological society at risk. Space weather is driven by the Sun's magnetism; invisible yet powerful magnetic forces, created within the Sun itself, determine when and where the next solar storm is going to happen. Thanks to the magnifying power of telescopes, we are able to monitor the Sun in a lot more detail than ever before. By analyzing the light captured by telescopes and the instruments that furnish them, we are now able to quantify these magnetic forces and track their evolution in time. Major efforts are being put into trying to forecast how these forces evolve and whether or not they will trigger the next big solar eruption.

Learn more about the Explorer Series at: https://edec.ucar.edu/public/ncar-explorer-series

Watch Dr. Centeno's full talk here: https://youtu.be/Wh9y-5G8e50