Abstract |
The role of the chromosphere as an essential "mediator" in the transfer of non-thermal energy from the
photosphere to the corona has come to the forefront in recent years. Together with numerical
simulations, high resolution observations and novel diagnostics are necessary to advance our
understanding of this complex, non-equilibrium part of the solar atmosphere.
Imaging spectrographs based on Fabry-Perot interferometers have helped spurring a "renaissance" for
classical chromospheric diagnostics such as Halpha and CaII H&K, highlighting the complex spatiotemporal thermo-dynamics of features such as fibrils and spicules and their relevance to the upper
atmosphere. New capabilities in spectropolarimetry, especially in the CaII IR and HeI 1083nm triplets,
are now starting to allow inference of the chromospheric magnetic field in a variety of features,
including prominences and coronal rain, providing a key piece of the puzzle that has been missing for
decades. Novel, complementary diagnostics have also entered the scene recently, such as UV spectral
lines from IRIS and CLASP, and the much awaited
millimiter continuum observed at high resolution by ALMA, which can provide a unambiguous
measure of the electron temperature and its temporal evolution.
During this talk I will provide an overview of how these new observations and diagnostics are shaping
our understanding of the chromosphere. |