Scientific programme & invited speakers

The detailed SOHO20 conference program is available here; the abstract book can be downloaded from here.

Session 1: Transients and dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere

This session will focus on the impact of solar transients - large and small flares, and coronal mass ejections - in the photosphere, chromosphere and lower corona, including their effects on plasma properties, radiative signatures and magnetic structure. It will bring together observations from SOHO and other missions, and related theoretical developments, to demonstrate the many ways in which SOHO has influenced our understanding.

Invited Speakers:

 David Alexander, Rice University, Invited Review, Transient phenomena in the low solar atmosphere, abstract
 Taro Sakao, ISAS/JAXA, First Results from Hinode Mission - Flare Observations, abstract
 Hugh Hudson, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Transients in RHESSI and chromospheric flares, abstract
 Peter Gallagher, Trinity College Dublin, Eruption precursors, abstract
 Bart De Pontieu, LMSAL, HINODE and the dynamics of the chromosphere: spicules and alfven waves, abstract

Session 2: CME’s: Why and how do they erupt?

Session 2 will cover the recent progress on the subject of CME initiation and discuss the advancements in our knowledge on precursors for CME eruption. Questions addressed in this session are: What are potential mechanisms for triggering CMEs? How dependent are they on specific magnetic topologies of the pre-CME source region, and/or well-positioned flux emergence, reconnection, etc.? Is all the magnetic energy /helicity stored up in a CME source region released during eruption? What is the role of reconnection during eruption and what is the observational evidence? How does the white light CME substructure compare to erupting prominence structure?

Invited Speakers:

 Tahar Amari, Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, On Some Problems Related to Coronal Mass Ejections initiation, abstract
 Carla Jacobs, Center for Plasma Astrophysics, Numerical simulations of CME initiation and evolution, abstract
 Eva Robbrecht, SIDC - Royal Observatory of Belgium, New perspective on CME rates and their distributions, abstract
 Frédéric Auchère, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, A first look at the propagation of CMEs through the Heliosphere with SECCHI/STEREO, abstract
 Bojan Vrsnak, Hvar Observatory, Croatia, Processes and mechanisms governing the CME initiation and propagation, abstract

Session 3: Heliospheric transients

Central themes in session 3 are the acceleration and transport of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) and the evolution and propagation of (I)CMEs. Insights from the new images from HI onboard STEREO will also be discussed in this session. Questions addressed in session 3 are: How do interplanetary conditions affect the transport and evolution of CMEs/ICMEs from the Sun to the Earth? How well do current (I)CME models reproduce the observations? What do the SEP signatures reveal about ICMEs and their evolution? What can new multi-spacecraft observations tell us about the large-scale, 3-D structure of ICMEs?

Invited Speakers:

 Richard Leske, California Institute of Technology, CMEs and Their Role in SEP Acceleration and Transport, abstract
 Pascal Démoulin, Observatoire de Paris, Quantitative links between CMEs and magnetic clouds, abstract
 Jon Linker, SAIC, San Diego, Modeling Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun into Interplanetary Space, abstract
 Simon Plunkett, NRL, A Panoramic View of CMEs with the STEREO/SECCHI Heliospheric Imagers, abstract
 Emilia Huttunen, SSL, Berkeley, The structure of magnetic clouds during solar cycle 23, abstract

Session 4: Solar and Heliospheric science in the next decade and beyond

In session 4 we want to discuss potential cornerstones in future solar physics, which will help to deepen our understanding of transient phenomena and our dynamic sun-earth system. Instead of discussing the "would be interesting" we would like to include papers on recent ideas and missions that look promising or techniques and models that have been prototyped. This session will address questions like: What is the expected impact on solar transients research from upcoming or proposed missions a.o. Proba-2, SDO, Kua Fu, Solar Orbiter and Solar Sentinels? Which new observational techniques and models are promising? How to advance data assimilation and image processing?

Invited Speakers:

 Dean Pesnell, NASA GSFC, SDO’s Contribution to the Study of Solar Transients, abstract
 David Berghmans, SIDC at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, Solar Imaging Science Fiction - Lessons learned and not learned with the PROBA2 experiment, abstract
 Farzad Kamalabadi, Coordinated Science Lab, Urbana, Illinois, Data Assimilation Opportunities and Challenges for Investigating Transient Phenomena, abstract
 Jack Ireland, NASA GSFC, Solar Physics and Solar Image Processing, abstract
 Eckart Marsch, MPS & Bob Lin, UC Berkeley, The combined science program of the Solar Orbiter and Sentinels missions for exploration of the Sun-Heliosphere connections, abstract

Panel discussion on Session 4:
 Moderator: Marco Velli, Thomas Zurbuchen
 Panel members: Lyndsay Fletcher, Guillaume Aulanier, David Berghmans, Don Hassler, Angelos Vourlidas, Thierry Dudok de Wit
 Submit your ideas or interesting questions for the panel here