Aims: The purpose of this paper is to characterize the statistical properties of solar granulation in the photosphere and low chromosphere up to 650 km. Methods: We use velocity and intensity variations obtained at different atmospheric heights from observations in Ba II 4554 Å. The observations were done during good seeing conditions at the VTT at

The magnetic field observed in the photosphere and at higher levels of the solar atmosphere is generated in the convective envelope that extends along the first 200 000 km below the solar surface (see DYNAMOS: SOLAR AND STELLAR and SOLAR INTERIOR). To properly understand the solar magnetic cycle, it is necessary to explain the processes whereby the

This book is a collection of papers by four internationally known speakers who explore some key areas in solar physics. O. von der Lühe discusses new techniques that are being developed for observing the sun at high spatial resolution and which have played a key role in most of the recent discoveries about the Sun. Egidio Landi Degl'Innocenti

Potassium line data from observatories in Hawaii and Spain were used to establish the authenticity of complex solar oscillation signals. Combination of the two data sets yields precise frequency, amplitude and phase determinations. Analyses of individual lines indicate possible decay and excitation of individual modes and suggest lifetimes for the

The site survey for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope concluded recently after more than 2 years of data gathering and analysis. Six locations, including lake, island, and continental sites, were thoroughly probed for image quality and sky brightness. The present paper describes the analysis methodology employed to determine the height

In this paper we report a new transiting warm giant planet: KOI-1257 b. It was first detected in photometry as a planet-candidate by the Kepler space telescope and then validated thanks to a radial velocity follow-up with the SOPHIE spectrograph. It orbits its host star with a period of 86.647661 d ± 3 s and a high eccentricity of 0.772 ± 0.045