Subject of research and major goals

Energy transport by the MHD waves and electric currents, from the photosphere upwards, and identification of physical mechanisms for consequent anomalous energy dissipation in the solar corona, appear a central fundamental problem and an actual task crucial for the study of many important and interconnected physical processes in the solar atmosphere, such as plasma heating, flares, particle acceleration, generation of the electromagnetic radiations, etc. Besides of the general scientific value, understanding of energy transport and release processes in the solar chromosphere and corona sheds a light on the physics of solar/stellar activity and provides a deeper view into the global solar energetic phenomena which appear in the base of the solar-terrestrial connections and significantly influence the near Earth space environment and consequently the human life.

By this, among the major energy transport and heating mechanisms in the solar atmosphere, the absorption of powerful energy flux carried by MHD waves generated in the photospheric convection, and the energy dissipation of the coronal electric currents, are widely considered. Staying within this paradigm, the project focuses on the study of MHD waves and oscillations in the solar plasmas, their transport and damping. Special attention is paid to the processes of nonlinear dynamics of MHD waves and the role of the increased amount of the neutral atoms provided by the presence of partially ionized helium and hydrogen in the chromospheric and coronal plasmas, which is taken into account in a physically correct self-consistent way.

Theoretical solar plasma physics studies are combined with a work on the analysis and interpretation of observational data provided by international observer teams cooperating with the project. The solar-stellar analogy regarding atmospheric composition and general stellar evolutionary laws makes the proposed investigation actual not only for the Sun, but also for other stars of the late spectral classes.