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CONTEXT: High-precision stellar analyses require hydrodynamic modeling to interpret chemical abundances or oscillation modes. Exoplanet atmosphere studies require stellar background spectra to be known along the transit path while detection…
Sun-as-a-star analyses, in which observational data is spatially integrated, are useful for interpreting stellar data. For future applications to stellar observations, we performed Sun-as-a-star analyses of H$\alpha$ spectra for various…
Breakthroughs in our understanding of physical phenomena have traditionally followed improvements in instrumentation. Studies of the magnetic field of the Sun, and its influence on the solar dynamo and space weather events, have benefited…
ALMA provides the necessary spatial, temporal and spectral resolution to explore central questions in contemporary solar physics with potentially far-reaching implications for stellar atmospheres and plasma physics. It can uniquely…
We present a new determination of the surface brightness of our Galaxy at the Solar Neighbourhood as observed from outside the Galaxy. We rely on various existing optical and infra-red surveys to obtain a multiwavelength estimate. On the…
We review techniques for measuring stellar oscillations in solar-type stars. Despite great efforts, no unambiguous detections have been made. A new method, based on monitoring the equivalent widths of strong lines, shows promise but is yet…
Understanding how the solar corona is structured is of fundamental importance to determining how the Sun's upper atmosphere is heated to high temperatures. Recent spectroscopic studies have suggested that an instrument with a spatial…
The figure of the Sun reflects its inner structure and dynamics, influencing also the perihelion precession of close orbiting bodies, like Mercury. To study the solar figure from ground, the deformation on the solar image induced by the…
In the era of large time-domain spectro-photometric surveys, surface variations such as starspots, chemical inhomogeneities, pulsations, rotational distortions, and binary interactions can now be directly detected and modelled. Accurately…
The solar disk is among the brightest gamma-ray sources in the sky. It is also among the most mysterious. No existing model fully explains the luminosity, spectrum, time variability, and morphology of its emission. We perform the first…
Since the first observations of solar oscillations, helioseismology has been one of the most successful fields of astrophysics. Data of high quality were obtained through the implementation of networks of ground-based observatories such as…
We are using computer models to explore the observational sensitivity to changes in atmospheric and surface properties, and the detectability of biosignatures, in the globally averaged spectra and light-curves of the Earth. Using AIRS…
Almost 100 years ago Sir Arthur Eddington noted that the interiors of stars were inaccessible to observations. The advent of helio- and asteroseismology has completely changed this assessment. Helioseismology has provided very detailed…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide the data to support detailed investigations of the distribution of luminous and non- luminous matter in the Universe: a photometrically and astrometrically calibrated digital imaging survey…
We analyse a 10,000 star spectroscopic survey, focused on Galactic thick disk stars typically 2-5 kpc from the Sun, carried out using the AAOmega Spectrograph on the AAT. We develop methods for completeness-correction of the survey based on…
The surfaces of rotating stars serve as a window into their interiors, magnetic dynamos, and are important in other areas including exoplanet discovery and atmospheric characterization. While indirect techniques such as photometry and…
Doppler Imaging (DI) is a well-established technique to map a physical field at a stellar surface from a time series of high-resolution spectra. In this proof-of-concept study, we aim to show that traditional DI algorithms, originally…
Stellar activity remains a limiting factor in measuring precise planet parameters from radial velocity spectroscopy, not least in the search for Earth mass planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars. One approach to mitigate…
Minor bodies of the solar system can be used to measure the spectrum of the Sun as a star by observing sunlight reflected by their surfaces. To perform an accurate measurement of the radial velocity of the Sun as a star by this method, it…
We present results from the first on-sky demonstration of a prototype astronomical integrated photonic spectrograph (IPS) using the Anglo-Australian Telescope near-infrared imaging spectrometer (IRIS2) at Siding Spring Observatory to…