The IAC hosts scientific meetings on Solar Orbiter's SO/PHI instrument

SO/PHI Science and Team Meetings
SO/PHI Science and Team Meetings
Advertised on

From today until 5 December 2025, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is hosting the SO/PHI Science and Team Meetings, an international gathering focused on the scientific and technical advances of the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument aboard ESA's Solar Orbiter (SO) space mission. The development of PHI was co-led by the Spanish Space Solar Physics Consortium (S3PC), which also currently coordinates its scientific operation and exploitation. The IAC is part of this network.

PHI is a high-precision solar observation instrument equipped with two telescopes—one full-disk (FDT) and one high-resolution (HRT)—capable of measuring the Sun's magnetic field and plasma velocity from deep space. Thanks to Solar Orbiter's unique orbit, which allows it to observe the Sun from unprecedented latitudes, PHI is providing unprecedented information about solar magnetic activity and its fundamental processes.

The meeting brings together around 55 international experts in Tenerife, with an additional 30 people participating online.

SO/PHI team meeting

On 1 and 2 December, the SO/PHI technical and operational team will hold an internal meeting to review the status of the instrument and plan its future development. Among the items on the agenda are the evaluation of its technical status, calibration strategies, the improvement of data processing procedures for the HRT and FDT telescopes, the review of mitigation measures for possible degradation, and the design of operational strategies for the next phases of the mission. Advances in the generation of vector magnetograms and image calibrations will also be discussed.

SO/PHI scientific meeting

The first scientific meeting dedicated specifically to the instrument will be held from 3 to 5 December. The programme will include presentations and discussions on seismological studies with the FDT, the connection between the solar surface and the corona, new observations in polar regions using the FDT and HRT, and work combining SO/PHI data with observations from other instruments. Advances in the study of polar magnetic fields, high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations, and improvements in deconvolution and noise reduction techniques in HRT data will also be discussed.

Holding these meetings in Tenerife offers the scientific community an opportunity to exchange knowledge, interact with the team responsible for the instrument, and explore new avenues of collaboration in the study of the solar magnetic field and the dynamics of the Sun's atmosphere. These meetings reinforce the role of the IAC as an international centre of excellence in solar physics and astronomical instrumentation.

Related projects
Project Image
Solar and Stellar Magnetism
Magnetic fields are at the base of star formation and stellar structure and evolution. When stars are born, magnetic fields brake the rotation during the collapse of the mollecular cloud. In the end of the life of a star, magnetic fields can play a key role in the form of the strong winds that lead to the last stages of stellar evolution. During
Tobías
Felipe García
In progress
Related news
Participantes del la undécima edición del Solar Polarization Workshop (SPW11) dedicada a Javier Trujillo Bueno
Photomontage
El congreso internacional Solar Polarization Workshop rinde homenaje al investigador del IAC Javier Trujillo Bueno en su 30º aniversario
Esta semana se celebra en Praga la undécima edición del Solar Polarization Workshop (SPW11) , un congreso internacional de referencia en el estudio de la polarización solar que reúne a especialistas de todo el mundo entre el 8 y el 12 de septiembre. En esta ocasión, la cita tiene un significado especial: conmemora los 30 años desde la primera edición celebrada en San Petersburgo en 1995 y está dedicada a honrar la trayectoria del investigador del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) y profesor de investigación del CSIC, Javier Trujillo Bueno , pionero en el campo del magnetismo solar y
Advertised on
News type
Press release
Scope
Congresses
Training
Communications media
Scientists
Solar Physics (FS)
Space instrumentation
Solar astronomy

It may interest you

  • Attendees at the Durham Advanced School on Astrophysical Simulations
    Photomontage
    The IAC participates in an advanced school on astrophysical simulations in Durham organized by the ExGal-Twin project
    From September 15 to 19, the Institute of Computational Cosmology (ICC) at Durham University (United Kingdom) will host the Durham Advanced School on Astrophysical Simulations, an educational event that brings together 50 participants and a dozen international speakers to explore the most advanced techniques in astrophysical simulation. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has a strong presence at this event, with 12 participants—including several PhD students—and three guest speakers: Arianna di Cintio, Claudio Dalla Vecchia, and Eva Durán Camacho, the latter a postdoctoral
    Advertised on
  • An artist's impression of a gamma-ray burst (GRB)
    Press release
    The LST-1 at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory provides new clues about gamma-ray bursts jets
    The international CTAO LST Collaboration , in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) plays a prominent role, released remarkable findings from observations of GRB 221009A—the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded. The results were published by the renowned journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJ Letters) . The publication presents in-depth observations conducted in 2022 with the Large-Sized Telescope (LST ) prototype, the LST-1, during its commissioning phase at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the CTAO-North site in La Palma, Spain. The
    Advertised on
  • Image of Deimos with Mars on the background, obtained with the HyperScout-H instrument on board the Hera spacecraft
    Press release
    Hera mission flies by Mars on its way to Didymos and captures unique images of its moons
    ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defense performed a flyby of Mars, as part of its gravitational assistance manoeuvre to shorten its journey to the binary asteroid system Didymos. During the flyby, the spacecraft came around 5000 km from the surface of Mars, having also the opportunity to obtain images of its two moons, Deimos (during the approach) and Phobos (when departing Mars). Julia de León, Javier Licandro, and George Prodan, researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, participate in this mission, successfully launched from Cape Cañaveral, Florida (USA) on October 7, 2024
    Advertised on