The solar transition region, which spans the temperature range from about 20,000 to 1,000,000 K, separates the chromosphere from the corona. All the energy that heats the corona and powers the solar wind must pass through this part of the solar atmosphere. This book summarizes recent ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet observations of the transition region, the empirical models derived from them, and the physical models that try to explain both the observations and the empirical models. The observational focus is on quiet solar transition region observations made with Skylab and subsequent rocket and satellite experiments. The book also presents a unified discussion of the analysis of ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet spectroscopic data, including the determination of the emission measure and density and temperature diagnostics. This will be useful to astrophysicists who are confronting high-resolution ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet data from astrophysical plasmas for the first time.

Proceedings of the Monterey Workshop, held in Monterey, California, August 1999

Solar Physics publishes up to two Topical Issues per year that focus on areas of especially vigorous and active research. The present Topical Issue contains papers of recent results on the solar corona, as well as on the transition region and low solar wind. The majority of these papers, which were all refereed in accordance with the standards of Solar Physics, were presented in August 1999 at a workshop held in Monterey, California. The authors were offered the opportunity to present relevant parts of their contributions on an accompanying CD ROM of this Topical Issue. The Sun's magnetic field is responsible for the spectacularly dynamic and intri cate phenomenon that we call the corona. The past decade has seen an enormous increase in our understanding of this part of the solar outer atmosphere, both as a result of observations and because of rapid advances in numerical studies. The Yohkoh satellite has observed the Sun now for over eight years, producing spectac ular sequences of images that convey the complexity of the corona. The imaging and spectroscopic instruments on SOHO have added information on the cooler part of the corona. And since April of 1998 TRACE has given us very high resolution images of the 1-2 MK corona, at cadences that allow detailed observations of field oscillations, loop evolution, mass ejecta, etc.

Helioseismology has enabled us to probe the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun, including how its rotation varies in the solar interior. The unexpected discovery of an abrupt transition - the tachocline - between the differentially rotating convection zone and the uniformly rotating radiative interior has generated considerable interest and raised many fundamental issues. This volume contains invited reviews from distinguished speakers at the first meeting devoted to the tachocline, held at the Isaac Newton Institute. It provides a comprehensive account of the understanding of the properties and dynamics of the tachocline, including both observational results and major theoretical issues, involving both hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic behaviour. The Solar Tachocline is a valuable reference for researchers and graduate students in astrophysics, heliospheric physics and geophysics, and the dynamics of fluids and plasmas.

Second edition graduate level textbook giving an up-to-date treatment of our understanding of the solar corona.

This volume is dedicated to the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched 11 February 2010. The articles focus on the spacecraft and its instruments: the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Articles within also describe calibration results and data processing pipelines that are critical to understanding the data and products, concluding with a description of the successful Education and Public Outreach activities. This book is geared towards anyone interested in using the unprecedented data from SDO, whether for fundamental heliophysics research, space weather modeling and forecasting, or educational purposes. Previously published in Solar Physics journal, Vol. 275/1-2, 2012. Selected articles in this book are published open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license at link.springer.com. For further details, please see the license information in the chapters.

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