Shadia Habbal

Title: Total Solar Eclipses and the Physics of the Solar Corona: The Case of Heavy Ion Spies

Abstract: Historically, total solar eclipses have provided a unique platform for the discovery of the solar corona and its physical properties. Imaging and spectroscopy played a central role in the advancement of our understanding of this highly ionized and dynamic plasma. This talk will concentrate on the latest discoveries made by the IfA team since 2006 from total solar eclipse observations. The preponderance of strong emission lines in the corona, from different charge states of Fe, underlines the role these heavy ions play as tracers of the underlying physical processes that define the corona, most importantly its magnetic field.