News 2026

17.09.2026  Congratulations to Suzana, Gary, Istvan and Viktor on the acceptance of "Solar Vortices as Conduits for Magnetoacoustic Waves: Multi-Layer Coupling and Their Role in Atmospheric Heating", paper, ApJ, 2026. 

This new research shows for the first time in observations that solar vortices can act as coherent waveguides. Combining high-resolution observations with numerical simulations, the paper demonstrates that these vortices can guide magnetoacoustic waves and transport significant energy through the lower solar atmosphere. Contrary to the common interpretation of solar vortices as channels for torsional Alfvén waves, the simulations find no evidence for torsional Alfvén waves below 1 Mm. The study also provides the first use of information theory to trace the three-dimensional connectivity of a solar vortex, linking its photospheric footpoint to the chromospheric swirl above.

Authors: Suzana Silva, Giannis Dakanalis, Luiz Schiavo, Kostas Tziotziou, Shahin Jafarzadeh, Tiago Pereira, Georgia Tsiropoula, Gary Verth, Istvan Ballai, Inaki Esnaola, James McLaughlin, GertBotha and Viktor Fedun 

17.09.2026  Congratulations to our PhD student, Mashael with her first paper accepted by ApJ. Well done! "Large-scale Vortices in the Solar Photosphere: Statistical Properties and the Reliability of Local Correlation Tracking",  Mashael Aldhafeeri, Suzana Silva, Istvan Ballai, Gary Verth, Haruhisa Iijima, Hideyuki Hotta and Viktor Fedun, ApJ, 2026

This is the first study to systematically test whether Local Correlation Tracking (LCT), one of the most widely used techniques for recovering horizontal motions in solar observations, can reliably identify mesogranular-scale vortices. The answer is: not quite. LCT misses a substantial fraction of individual vortices, but remarkably, it still recovers their overall statistical properties well. The results highlight an important distinction between using LCT to identify individual vortices and using it to characterise vortex populations statistically.

06-12.09.2026  Suzana Silva, Ellie McClure, Istvan Ballai and Viktor Fedun are participating in the ISSI meeting "Opening new avenues in identifying coherent structures and transport barriers in the magnetised solar plasma".

21.08-06.09.2026 Dr Huang Guan-Han (Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan) is visiting us in the framework of our collaborative grant IEC\R3\233017 - International Exchanges 2023 Cost Share (NSTC).

04.09.2026 Suzana Silva, Viktor Fedun and collaborators published the first observational evidence that solar vortices enhance transport through the lower solar atmosphere, using high-resolution Sunrise III observations. Observational Evidence of Vortex-Driven Information Transfer in the Solar Atmosphere: Insights from Sunrise III, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

14.08.2026 Aristeidis Voulgaris is pesenting the public talk at Solar MHD 2026. Title: "Studying Solar Eclipses Across Two Millennia: From the Antikythera Mechanism's Eclipse Predictions to Modern Spectroscopic Analysis of the Solar Corona during totality".

13.08.2026 Solar MHD 2026 in the local news.

12.08.2026 Solar Eclipse Day!

12.08.2026 Solar Eclipse images taken by Sergey and Viktor.

10-14.08.2026 PDG is participating in Solar MHD 2026, A Coruña, Spain

Presentations:

• From Workflow to Performance: Lare3d and SAMS Shell and Shared-Memory I/O, S. Ruzheinikov, V. Fedun, A. Hillier, T. Arber, E. Verwichte, G.D. Zanna, B. Snow, C. Osborne, N. Mori, C. Brady, R. Olivier, H. Ratcliffe

• Analysis of the wave structures of a horizontally driven magnetic cylinder, Guan-Han Huang, V. Fedun, S. Ruzheinikov, I. Ballai, Chia-Hsien Lin, S. Silva

• Investigating the oscillations in solar pores and their movements, Chia-Hsien Lin, V. Fedun, I. Ballai, S. Silva, L. Schiavo, Guan-Han Huang

• Solar Vortex Detection With Velocity Field Normalisation: Eliminating False Positives, L. McClure, S. Silva, G. Verth, I. Ballai, V. Fedun

11.08.2026 Congratulations to Mashael on being awarded Best PhD Poster by UKSP! Well done, Mashael! Excellent work!

06.08.2026 Congratulations to our PhD student and now Dr. Jawaher Alshehri on her successful viva! Well done!

31.07.2026 Sun today.

25.07.2026 Sun today.

20-24.07.2026  PDG is participating in NAM 2026 at Birmingham University.

Sessions organiser: 

S. Silva, L. McClure, V. Fedun, E. Scullion, K. Tziotziou, I. Milic, Modern methods for the analysis of dynamical plasma processes in the solar atmosphere [DyPlasProc]

M. Druett, M. Korsos, K. Meyer, A. Russell, P. Wyper, S. Mulay, S. Skirvin, L. McClure, UK Solar Physics Open Session [UKSolar]

Presenter:

• M. Aldhafeeri, I. Ballai, G. Verth, V. Fedun, S. Silva,  Validation of Vortex Identification in the Solar Photosphere: True Velocities vs LCT-Reconstructed Flows (DyPlasProc)   

• N. Alshehri, I. Ballai,  G. Verth,  V. Fedun, V. Alfven Waves in Partially Ionised Solar Steady-State Plasmas

• S. Ruzheinikov, V. Fedun,  A. Hillier, T. Arber, E. Verwichte, G.D. Zanna, B. Snow, C. Osborne, N. Mori, C. Brady, R. Olivier, H. Ratcliffe, From Workflow to Performance: SAMS Shell and Shared-Memory I/O, (DyPlasProc)

• M. Druett, et al., Investigating Stellar Flare and CME detection using Solar and Sun-as-a-star observations (NGEruptive)

• S. Silva et al., Revealing Coherent CME-Driven Waves in the Outer Corona Using Spectral Decomposition (NGEruptive)

• M. Druett, et al., Flare ribbons substructures in simulations and observations (NGEruptive)

•  S. Silva, I. Dakanalis, K. Tziotziou,  A. Siu-Tapia, S. Jafarzadeh, S. Turkay, G. Verth, I. Ballai, G. Botha, J. McLaughlin,  V. Fedun and Sunrise Team, Vortices as Waveguides: Quantifying Vortex-Driven Inter-Layer Coupling in the Solar Atmosphere via SPOD and Granger Causality (UKSolar)

26.06.2026 Congratulations to PhD student and now Dr Sarah Eid Alshammari on her successful viva! Well done!

16.07-17.08.2026  Prof Chia-Hsien Lin (Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taiwan) is visiting us in the framework of our collaborative grant IEC\R3\233017 - International Exchanges 2023 Cost Share (NSTC).

16-19.06.2026 Suzana Silva and Viktor Fedun participated in the WaLSA Team Working Meeting "Wave and Oscillation Studies with SUNRISE III and Solar Orbiter/PHI Data" Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Göttingen, Germany

02.05.2026 Congratulations to our PhD student and now Dr Adel S Alanezy on his successful viva! Well done!

01-03.05.2026 Suzana Silva and Malcolm Druett participated at the 1st Open Sunrise III Science Meeting: Data Release and Science Projects, KIS, Freiburg. Oral presentation "Observational Evidence of Directed Information Transfer by Solar Vortices ".

24-30.05.2026 Viktor Fedun participated in the JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2026. Makuhari Messe, Chiba. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2025. Session organiser. [P-EM15] "Frontiers in solar physics: observation, modeling, and long-term research from the past to the future" 

in collaboration with 

Mori Toriumi (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science), 

Kyoko Watanabe (National Defense Academy of Japan), 

Sterling Alphonse (NASA/MSFC), 

Shinsuke Imada (Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo), 

Haruhisa Iijima (Nagoya University, Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research), 

Druett Malcolm Keith (University of Sheffield, UK), 

Alexander Peftsov (National Solar Observatory).

Presentation: [PEM15-P17] Vortical plasma processes in the solar atmosphere and their importance for energy transfer, Viktor Fedun, Suzana Silva, Lauren McClure, Mashael Aldhafeeri, Gary Verth, Istvan Ballai.

03.05.2026 Foad (our PhD student) participated in the 2nd European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) Summer School, focused on "The physics of the Sun and the Heliosphere," Dubrovnik, Croatia, from April 27 to May 3, 2026.

02.05.2026 Sun today.

26.04.2026 Congratulations to Jawaher (our PhD student) on the acceptance of her A&A paper "Magnetoacoustic waves in two-fluid weakly ionised solar atmospheric plasmas in ionisation non-equilibrium".

25.04.2026 Moon today.

20.04.2026 Congratulations to Adel on his first publication!  Adel Alanezy, Suzana Silva, Istvan Ballai, Gary Verth, and Viktor Fedun, “Oscillatory Dynamics and Energy Transport in Twisted Magnetic Flux Tubes of the Solar Photosphere”,  Solar Physics, 2026

16.04.2026 Viktor, Suzana and Malcolm participated in the UK Space Frontiers 2035 community engagement event, Space Park Leicester.

04.04.2026 Congratulations to Adel Alanezy (our PhD student) on the acceptance of his first paper for publication in Solar Physics! 

Adel Alanezy, Suzana Silva, Istvan Ballai, Gary Verth, and Viktor Fedun, “Oscillatory Dynamics and Energy Transport in Twisted Magnetic Flux Tubes of the Solar Photosphere”,  Solar Physics, 2026

25.03.2026 Congratulations to Ellie McClure (our PhD student) on her first publication! 

Lauren McClure, Suzana Silva, Gary Verth, Istvan Ballai and Viktor Fedun, “Solar Vortex Detection With Velocity Field Normalisation: Eliminating False Positives”, 

The Astrophysical Journal, 2026

16-18.03.2026 Dr Alina Donea (Monash University, Australia) visited PDG and presented a seminar titled “Stability of Large Sunspots.” She also had a number of useful discussions with PDG members as well as the SunbYte team. 

01-06.03.2026 This week, Malcolm Druett (Team Lead) and Foad Hanassi-Savari (PDG PhD student) attended the ISSI meeting ‘Next-Generation Solar Flare Modelling: Bridging the Multi-Dimensional Gap.’

21.02.2026 National Astronomical Meeting 2026 session "Modern methods for the analysis of dynamical plasma processes in the solar atmosphere" has been organised by the members of PDG (Suzana Silva, Lauren McClure, Viktor Fedun) in collaboration with Eamon Scullion, Kostas Tziotziou and Ivan Milic. Feel free to share the link with your community, for example, on social media or via email newsletters. Deadline 2nd April 2026.

10.02.2026 White Paper (Helio), UKRA STFC published, Silva, SSA., Fedun, V., Verth, G., Ballai, I., Scullion, E., Druett, M., Tziotziou, K., Pietrow, A., Yadav, N., Dakanalis, I., Khomenko, E., Kuniyoshi, H., Turkay, S., Pistarini, MK., Erdelyi, R., Schiavo, LACA., Observing solar vortices with existing and future instrumentation. Solar Physics International Network for Swirls (SPINS), 2026, arxiv

09-13.02.2026 Viktor Fedun participated in USO Golden Jubilee Conference, Udaipur, India  

04.01.2026 Congratulations to Malcolm Druett, with his successful application to the ISSI. Project: "Next-Generation Solar Flare Modelling: Bridging the multi-dimensional gap", ISSI Team led by Joel Allred & Malcolm Druett