News: Abstract submissions will be open on 28/1

Understanding the coupling between plasma and magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere remains a central challenge in astrophysics. The Sun provides a unique laboratory in which fundamental magnetohydrodynamic processes can be observed directly at the spatial and temporal scales of their basic constituents. Key open questions include how magnetic fields emerge and evolve, how energy is transported from the photosphere to the chromosphere, what mechanisms heat the chromosphere and corona, and how magnetic instabilities trigger eruptive events such as flares and coronal mass ejections.

Addressing these problems requires observations that combine extremely high spatial and temporal resolution with simultaneous multi-wavelength and multi-height diagnostics. Weak chromospheric polarization signals, in particular, demand instruments with exceptional polarimetric sensitivity.

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a 4.2-m ground-based facility designed to meet these requirements. With diffraction-limited performance, advanced adaptive optics, and an optimized polarimetric design, EST will enable high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations from the visible to the near-infrared. This special session aims to present the scientific capabilities of EST, highlight the new discovery space it will open in solar physics, and foster discussion on its impact on related areas of astrophysics and space weather research.

Programme

• EST: The telescope and instrumentation
• Magnetic connectivity of the solar atmosphere
• Emergence and evolution of solar magnetic fields
• Energy transport and chromospheric heating
• Chromospheric and coronal magnetic field diagnostics
• Solar flares, eruptive phenomena, and CME initiation
• High-precision polarimetry and weak-field measurements

Invited speakers

• To be announced soon

Scientific organisers

• Héctor Socas-Navarro (Chair, European Solar Telescope Foundation)
• Manuel Collados (Co-Chair, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain)
• Svetlana Berdyugina (IRSOL, Switzerland)
• Lyndsay Fletcher (University of Glasgow, UK)
• Rolf Schlichenmaier (Institut für Sonnenphysik, Germany)

Contact

For further information, please contact: Hector Socas-Navarro (Chair) or Manuel Collados (Co-Chair) Email: hector.socas @ est-project.eu