The aim of the Whole Sun project is to understand the nature of the activity of our star, the Sun, as a whole. Typically, during the past few decades, solar physics research was focused towards studying the structure and dynamics of either the solar interior or of the solar surface/atmosphere. Our goal is to consolidate studies of these two broad solar regions, through strong synergies between the team members, in order to gain an advanced understanding of their coupling and of the Sun. The detailed study of the (thermo)dynamical and magnetic coupling between the deep solar interior, the solar surface and the highly-stratified atmosphere is absolutely essential if one wants to address key open problems in solar physics.
We have gathered a team of European world leaders in solar physics, stellar physics, and computational astrophysics to tackle all facets of our complex star: from deep inside where the magnetic field originates through dynamo action to surface convection where the field emerges and erupts to the extended atmosphere where the fields expand, heat the corona and propel the solar wind. For the first-time experts in all aspects required to understand our star and its nonlinear dynamics will be working together in a synergistic way to tackle a question that seems so obvious but has been eluding a clear answer for more than one century: How does the magnetic Sun work as a whole and evolve?
For too long solar physics has been split in sub domains, below and above the solar surface (photosphere), lacking this global and integrated view that the Whole Sun Project is proposing as its pivotal, essential and constitutive fundament. We wish to study at the most fundamental and ab-initio level, yet retaining a high level of realism in modelling our star, the complex and nonlinear physical mechanisms at play in our star, developing for this ambitious goal a framework to integrate all the recent advances that the community and the PI’s of the project have brought to understand the Sun.
The impact of our active Sun on Earth and our technological society is key to characterise and understand in order to mitigate the negative impact it could have during strong activity events. Our work on the ab-initio fundamental understanding of the Sun, will help improving our forecasting skills of the solar activity and hence will directly serve our modern society by helping mitigate its impact on our various infrastructures (power grid, satellites, communications,….).
