Sun, Solar Wind & Heliosphere

The Sun is not only the source of energy and live on Earth through its radiation, but also fills the interplanetary space, the heliosphere, with a continuously outflowing solar wind. The solar wind varies following active dynamic processes on the Sun on temporal scales ranging from minutes to days (solar storms), decades (solar cycle) and millennia (long-term variations), creating an ever-changing driver for the solid bodies in the Heliosphere.  

We study the processes in the solar atmosphere through examining the composition of the solar wind as well as the evolution of the solar magnetic field as it lifts off from the solar surface with the solar wind to fill the heliosphere. On one hand we study the dynamic effects of the solar wind at Earth and other heliospheric bodies, while on the other hand we examine the fundamental processes of particle acceleration on the Sun and in the heliosphere to understand the evolution of the heliosphere, the local interstellar environment, and the galaxy.