SOLAR MICROSCOPY: UNVEILING THE SUN’S BASIC PHYSICAL PROCESSES AT THEIR INTRINSIC SCALES

摘要

Many of the basic physical processes on the Sun responsible for solar activity and the Sun’s influence on the Earth take place at intrinsic scales that have yet to be observationally resolved. These or similar processes also take place in a variety of other astrophysical systems, but are even further from being resolved. The Sun provides the most promising physical system on which such processes will finally be resolved. We briefly identify some important physical scales and estimate the sizes of solar instruments needed to resolve such scales. Given the very large size of the ideal instrument, we also briefly discuss instrumentation that would have a resolution intermediate between the one currently achievable and that needed to resolve fully the basic processes. This instrumentation could form the core payload of a next-generation solar mission.