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Robert Rosner is the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor
of astronomy and astrophysics, holding appointments as well in the
physics department at the University of Chicago and the Enrico Fermi
Institute. His research has involved analysis and modeling of solar and
stellar observations and the study of fluid behavior in the laboratory
and in space, especially in the context of stellar convection and
stellar magnetic field generation. Rosner is a fellow of the American
Physical Society.
(Photo courtesy University of Chicago)
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Anyone visiting the High Altitude Observatory will immediately sense
that HAO is different: it is much more akin to a university academic
department than one would ordinarily expect of a research division at a
national laboratory. I would like to comment on the justifications for
maintaining (indeed, for celebrating) this difference at NCAR.
Astrophysics as a distinct discipline—separate from
astronomy—had its origins in the elucidation of visible light
spectra from the Sun and stars. A number of the giants of 19th-century
U.S. physics understood the tremendous potential importance of
spectroscopy in revealing the fundamental nature of matter. Their work
regarded the Sun as a representative astronomical object; relatively
little attention was paid to the Sun in and of itself, or as the driver
of activity within the solar system.
With the advent of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, it became possible to
connect observations of solar spectra to basic questions of physics. Two
Harvard scientists central to the founding of HAO—Donald Menzel
(director of the Harvard College Observatory) and his student Walter Orr
Roberts—were in the thick of this kind of research in the late
1930s. As part of Menzel's drive to improve the observational prospects
of this field, Harvard established HAO in Climax, Colorado. The coronal
observations carried out at Climax have set the theme for much of the
HAO science since.
The tone of HAO science was also set early on by the connection to
Harvard's astrophysical research. This view of solar science, which sees
the Sun as an intrinsically interesting object, motivated most of HAO's
expansion as part of NCAR. Fundamental work on radiative hydrodynamics,
the solar wind, the solar dynamo, helioseismology, and (most recently)
stellar activity all reflect this perspective on solar physics. HAO has
played an important international role in solar physics; in certain
important subfields of astrophysics, it is the primary U.S.
institution.
I contend that Walt Roberts's scientific motivation for joining HAO with
NCAR—namely, investigating the terrestrial impacts of the
Sun—was both extremely insightful and scientifically premature.
Connections between solar activity and climatological or meteorological
phenomena have proven extremely difficult and subtle to establish. It is
only recently, with modern observational tools and analysis methods,
that such connections are being established and Roberts's vision
vindicated. With these successes, I predict that solar physics within
HAO will experience yet more strongly the natural, and hopefully
creative, tension between the basic and more applied sciences. The
challenge for HAO will be to balance the historical pressure for
excellence in basic solar science with the increasing pressures for
practical relevance. (Of course, this tension between basic, unfettered
research and applications-driven research pervades not just HAO but much
of NCAR as well.)
As the connections between solar physics and the atmospheric sciences
grow stronger, and are placed on increasingly firmer quantitative
grounds, I see HAO in a unique position to benefit both itself and the
larger scientific community from the interplay between the fundamental
and the practical aspects of the science. I therefore salute HAO and its
scientists for what they have wrought, and I am excited about their
future.
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