Schrijver, Carolus J.

Contact Email: schryver@lmsal.com
Institute: Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center
First Coauthor: Kenneth G. Carpenter
Institute: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Research URL:http://www.lmsal.com/~schryver/
Subject Area: Instrumentation: Space Based
Waveband: Ultraviolet
Technique: Imaging (Direct)
Presentation: Poster Display
Title: Imaging the Surfaces and Interiors of Other Stars: Scientific Goals of The Stellar Imager (SI)
Abstract: The dynamo process remains one of the biggest challenges in understanding, and forecasting, solar and stellar activity. Acoustic measurements of subsurface fields remain beyond our reach, even in the Sun, except for a thin layer near the surface. Hence, proxies such as emergence patterns remain the only practical way to learn about the dynamo. Although there is an increasing number of snapshots of the surface distribution of activity in cool stars, our knowledge of the properties of flux emergence, dispersal, and cancellation in stellar photospheres are founded almost exclusively upon the solar example. In order to learn about the dependence of the dynamo on stellar properties, and in order to assess the full spectrum of modes that the Sun may exhibit, we need to observe other stars throughout their activity cycles. With interferometric imaging we can look beyond the few rapid rotators or eclipsing binaries, and include all types of cool stars in our studies. This poster looks at some of the questions we can address if we could really image stellar surfaces, ranging from surface diagnostics of magnetic fields to helioseismic measurements of internal dynamics.