PROFESSOR P. VENKATAKRISHNAN

The sun is normally middle aged star and is often overlooked by students of astrophysics who like their pet objects to do exciting things. But the sun does produce solar eruptions which can influence earth bound technological systems. These eruptions are caused by spectacular changes in the magnetic fields of solar active regions. The regions undergoing magnetic flux emergence are very prone to erupt. The study of electric currents in these regions is a promising area to look for causes of these eruptions. In this talk, the speaker will present some examples of such studies. He will compare the evolution of the electric currents during flux emergence, both for observations as well as for simulations. He will conclude by briefly showing how one can measure electric currents using the Multi Application Solar Telescope in the Udaipur Solar Observatory of the Physical Research Laboratory.