Solar Atmosphere

Abstract

There has been a revolution in understanding the nature of the Sun's atmosphere that has been stimulated by high-resolution satellite observations together with the realisation that the atmosphere is a magnetic world in which plasma interacts with magnetic fields in complex and highly nonlinear ways. We describe here the recent surprises that have arisen about the photosphere and corona especially from the SoHO satellite. Then we describe the role of the magnetic field and summarise the main properties of magnetic waves and magnetic reconnection. Finally, we discuss in some detail solar flares and the possible ways in which the solar corona is heated.