Division E Commission 10: Solar Activity

Abstract

Abstract. After more than half a century of community support related to the science of "solar activity", IAU's Commission 10 was formally discontinued in 2015, to be succeeded by C.E2 with the same area of responsibility. On this occasion, we look back at the growth of the scientific disciplines involved around the world over almost a full century. Solar activity and fields of research looking into the related physics of the heliosphere continue to be vibrant and growing, with currently over 2,000 refereed publications appearing per year from over 4,000 unique authors, publishing in dozens of distinct journals and meeting in dozens of workshops and conferences each year. The size of the rapidly growing community and of the observational and computational data volumes, along with the multitude of connections into other branches of astrophysics, pose significant challenges; aspects of these challenges are beginning to be addressed through, among others, the development of new systems of literature reviews, machine-searchable archives for data and publications, and virtual observatories. As customary in these reports, we highlight some of the research topics that have seen particular interest over the most recent triennium, specifically active-region magnetic fields, coronal thermal structure, coronal seismology, flares and eruptions, and the variability of solar activity on long time scales. We close with a collection of developments, discoveries, and surprises that illustrate the range and dynamics of the discipline.

Commission 12: Solar Radiation and Structure

“…I of the "Transactions of the International Astronomical Union" (1922), the highly collaborative environment of From the beginning of the Triennial IAU publication "Reports in Astronomy" (IAU Transactions A) in 1961, Commission 12 and its fellow solar commissions (C10 and, from 1974, also C49) have faithfully reported on important topics and developments in the field, as well as on world-wide activities. With the rapid growth of the discipline however, such a task has become increasingly difficult, as comprehensively described by Schrijver et al (2015) in this Volume (already in the early 1960's, the bibliographical references in the reports amounted to several pages!). Page limitations imposed by the Executive Committee of the IAU further compounded on the problem; to this end it is quite interesting to read the introductory statements of Athay et al (1970).…”