Spectra School Broomfield

[Argenta Sugden]

Therecordings from the workshop are now on HAO's YouTube channel. Here is the playlist. Unfortunately, the first hour of Day 1 and the entirety of Day 4 are missing. We hope that, despite these glitches, the recordings might still be useful to some of you. The playlist is organized by Day of the workshop. We added timestamps for convenient access to the start of each lecture/segment.

The polarized spectrum of the Sun encodes a wealth of information on the thermodynamic and magnetic properties of its atmosphere, which ultimately drive the largest Space Weather phenomena affecting the Earth and near-Earth environment. In order to unveil this valuable information, scientists must perform critically sensitive spectro-polarimetric observations of the Sun, and then carefully reduce, analyze, and interpret the observed data. However, all the aspects involved in this effort (theory, modeling, instrumentation, data analysis) constitute a highly specialized craft, which is notoriously difficult to master.

This two-week school aims at presenting a comprehensive overview of the field of solar spectropolarimetry, and the various tools and methods necessary for decoding the polarization of the solar spectrum.

This school will take place in 2022, in Boulder, Colorado. The organization will (partially or fully) support travel and accommodation costs for the students. This is possible thanks to our sponsors: the High Altitude Observatory of NCAR, and the National Solar Observatory.

Approximately 25 participants (domestic and international) will be selected through a competitive process. The school organization will (at least partially) support participants to cover travel, accommodation, and per diem costs during the school. Application details will be available in due course.

Everybody is welcome to apply, however, applications from graduate students and early career scientists working in the field of Solar Physics will be given priority. A minimum of 15 spots will be reserved for domestic participants.

In the second week, the theoretical lectures will address the complexities of non Local Thermodynamical Equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer. We will present two different non-LTE spectral-line inversion codes (DeSIRe and HAZEL2), that enable diagnostics of a variety of spectral lines formed under non-LTE conditions. These guided tutorials involve many hours of hands-on activities, with the goal of developing a working understanding of these software packages and their use for the analysis of spectropolarimetric observations. We will populate this website with a description of the three inversion codes and links to download them in due course.

The school will rely on lectures as well as computer lab tutorials taught by leading world experts. The experience will not only offer the participants the opportunity to dive into the field of spectropolarimetry, but will also enable them to develop a network of connections with fellow students, experts, and mentors alike.

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