The solar research program at Oukaimeden Observatory started in 1988 with the helioseimological IRIS network. The Moroccan researchers involved in this research have analyzed solar observations in order to detect and characterize the solar sphere modes of oscillations. In the coming year, the researchers at the Oukaimeden Observatory will add new research capabilities by joining the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI), installing a suite of optical instruments, comprising a Remote Equatorial Nighttime Observatory of Ionospheric Regions (RENOIR). The scope and objectives to be achieved in this proposed project are to:

• • deploy a Fabry-Perot interferometer and wide-angle imaging system to the Observatoire Astronomique Universitaire de LOukaimeden;

• • train students and researchers from Cadi Ayyad University on the operation of the equipment and related analysis techniques;

• • collect and analyze data from the equipment to study properties of upper-atmospheric winds and temperatures and how they relate to the occurrence of space weather; and

• • develop an international collaboration network with other researchers using similar instrumentation in Brazil and Peru. We will present here the plan we intend to develop for the Moroccan solar program in connection with ISWI.

Recent research on global climate changes points to three distinct sources of climate disturbance: anthropogenic; natural changes in the oceans and atmosphere; and irregularities in the solar cycles. One of the most direct ways to survey an exogenous component of the climatic variability is through the measurement of variations in the diameter and shape of the solar disk. At Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, after several years of diameter observation using a CCD Solar Astrolabe, these measurements are now performed by a state-of-the-art Solar Heliometer. The heliometric method is one of the most successful techniques to measure small variations of angles. Its principle has been used for the latest space borne astrometric missions, aiming to milli-arcsecond precision. The success of this method relies in the fact that it minimizes the dependence of angular measurements to the thermal and mechanical stability of the instrument. However in the classic heliometer the objective is split into two halves to which is applied a linear displacement along the cut, thus still leaving room for a residual dependence with the focus, due to non-concentricity of the beams of the two images. The focus variation, as well as the effects brought by the large temperature variations during solar observations, was tackled in the Solar Heliometer by having all optical elements and their niches made on CCZ, and the telescope tube on carbon fiber, both materials of negligible thermal coefficient. Additionally, the measures are made perpendicular to the separation direction and the plate scale can be known at every time from the solar motion itself. We present the results from the first year of measurements, in special exploring the upheaval of solar activity on late 2011.

The uncertainty of measurement of solar diameter is depending on the observational time scale. Full-disc images of SDO/HMI and the images from ground observations in Huairou Solar Observing Station have been analyzed to get the values of solar diameter. The satellite observations reach a very high precision, but the absolute image scale still need to be calibrated. The solar oblateness is a more challenging measurement than the diameter, since the signal amplitude is a few milli-arcseconds. It is a relative measurement, then not affected by the pixel scale calibration required by the diameter measurement. But the results are strongly dependent on the state of instrument such as focus plane deformation and on the calculation process.

The possibility to measure the solar diameter using the transits of Mercury has been exploited to investigate the past three centuries of its evolution and to calibrate these measurements made with satellites. This measurement basically consists to compare the ephemerides of the internal contact timings with the observed timings. The transits of Venus of 2004 and 2012 gave the possibility to apply this method, involving a planet with atmosphere, with the refraction of solar light through it creating a luminous arc all around the disk of the planet. The observations of the 2012 transit made to measure the solar diameter participate to the project Venus Twilight Experiment to study the aureole appearing around it near the ingress/egress phases.

The Sun affects the Earth in multiple ways. In particular, the material in interplanetary space comes from coronal expansion in the form of solar wind, which is the primary source of the interplanetary medium. Ground-based Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) observations are an important and effective method for measuring solar wind speed and the structures of small diameter radio sources. In this paper we will discuss the IPS observations in China.

To address fundamental processes in the solar eruptive phenomena it is important to have imaging-spectroscopy over centimetric-decimetric wave range. The Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph (CSRH) in 0.4-15 GHz range with high time, space and frequency resolutions is being constructed to achieve this goal. The perspectives to open new observational windows on solar flares and CMEs will be achieved by mapping the radio emission from unstable electron populations during the basic processes of energy release. CSRH is located in a radio quiet region in Inner Mongolia of China. The array of CSRH-I in 0.4-2.0 GHz with 40 4.5m antennas has been established and starts test observations. The 60 2m antennas for array of CSRH-II in 2-15 GHz have been mounted and assembled. The progress and current status of CSRH are introduced.

The Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph (CSRH) is under construction in Mingantu station of NAOC in China. Now, CSRH-I which includes antenna, receiver and correlator in decimetric wave range has been established. This paper introduced calibration on CSRH and present some results of data processing.

The design of five-element digital receiver system is decribed. At first, we analyzed the process of data processing in the receiver system. Then we wrote programs to implement the FIR parallel filter and showed its simulation results. Finally the testing result of the correlation receiver system is demonstrated.

This work presents an overview of the microwave observations of the Chinese Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer at Huairou (SBRS/Huairou) during 1997-2011. The relationships between the microwave bursts and solar flares and the calibration of spectrometers are also studied.

This work applied Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph(CSRH) to simulate the quiet Sun to produce the radio image. Then, we simulate a point source, and make all antennas have a typical phase error(5°) to calculate the dynamic range. It is found that the dynamic range agrees with the theoretical value. The image processing and simulated results are presented.

To capture the fine structure of the flare kernel during it's explosive phase, we design a real time flare onset detecting algorithm named Near Saturation Area Threshold(NSAT), And an automatic CCD parameters control algorithm for the observing software. All the data from CCD, 48f/s, could be saved to the hard disk, and the GPS time of the flare onset also be saved in the log. These methods could avoid the data overflow and grab the fine structure data of the flare kernel. The simulation experiment works well and the software will be put into use in Huairou Solar Observatory soon.

Magnetic helicity is a physical quantity that describes field topology. It is also a conserved quantity as Berger in 1984 demonstrated that the total magnetic helicity is still conserved in the corona even when there is a fast magnetic reconnection. It is generally believed that solar magnetic fields, together with their helicity, are created in the convection zone by various dynamo processes. These fields and helicity are transported into the corona through solar photosphere and finally released into the interplanetary space via various processes such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar winds. Here I will give a brief review on our recent works, first on helicity observations on the photosphere and how to understand these observations via dynamo models. Mostly, I will talk about what are the possible consequences of magnetic helicity accumulation in the corona, namely, the formation of magnetic flux ropes, CMEs taking place as an unavoidable product of coronal evolution, and flux emergences as a trigger of CMEs. Finally, I will address on in what a form magnetic field in the interplanetary space would accommodate a large amount of magnetic helicity that solar dynamo processes have been continuously producing.

Magnetic helicity quantifies the degree of linkage and/or twistedness in the magnetic field. It is probably the only physical quantity which is approximately conserved even in resistive MHD. This makes it an ideal tool for the exploration of the physics of solar eruptions. In this article, I discuss the sources of magnetic helicity injected into active regions and I point out that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are probably necessary to remove at least part of the excess helicity produced in the Sun. I also discuss the importance of magnetic helicity in the overall coronal evolution that may lead to eruptions.

The α-effect is central to magnetic field generation in αΩ dynamo theory (Parker, 1955), however, it lacked observational and experimental supports over a long term (Sokoloff, 2007). Mirror asymmetries of magnetic field (magnetic helicity) were not observed until the recent 20 years (Seehafer, 1990; Pevtsov et al., 1995, Bao & Zhang, 1998). Later, the advancement in local helioseismology has made possible the measurements of solar subsurface velocity field and the vorticity (or kinetic helicity) as well (Zhao & Kosovichev, 2003). Apparently, frozen flow with the magnetic field in the fluid of high magnetic Reynold number is a necessary condition for the α-effect in the framework of Parker's dynamo model.

Geomagnetic and solar storms and their occurrence rate with respect to the solar activity cycle is an important topic of space environment research. The minimum of solar activity during the solar cycle number 23 (SC-23) have detectable effects on the space environments, where the monthly mean of sunspot number and solar proton events effecting the space environment and produced many of Geophysical effects. A detailed study of the centers of activity produced the proton events are carried out. The electromagnetic emissions at the different bands during the impulsive phase of the flare are tabulated and discussed. The different Geophysical effects due to the events are studied. Conclusions about the proton solar events at minimum activity are presented.

With the photospheric vector magnetic fields provided by SDO/HMI team, the helicity accumulation, induced electric field and Poynting flux is calculated for AR 11158 by using the local correlation tracking technique (LCT). It is found that the helicity accumulation reaches 6000×1040Mx2, the average densities of the induced electric field about 0.15-0.35 V cm−1, and that of the Poynting flux about 50-240 W m−2, within 50 hours. One main flare of X2.2 occurs in the increasing phase of the helicity accumulation, which also corresponds to the decreasing phase of the induced electric field and the gradual change phase of the Poynting flux. Before the flare, all these quantities increase rapidly for about 20 hours firstly, then increase gradually or even decrease for 8-9 hours.

Magnetic helicity was found important in understanding solar activities such as flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). Berger and field (1984) derived an expression for helicity flux dHm/dt, that can be applied to an individual solar active region (AR) occupying an area S of the photosphere, (1)

\begin{linenomath} dH_{m}/dt=-2\int_{s}[(\mathbf{A_{p}}\cdot \mathbf{V})\mathbf{B}-(\mathbf{A_{p}} \cdot \mathbf{B})\mathbf{V}] dS, \eqno{(1)} \end{linenomath}

(2)

\begin{linenomath} dH/dt=-\int2(\textbf{A}_{p}\cdot \textbf{V}_{LCT})B_{n}dS, \eqno{(2)} \end{linenomath}

We study the temporal and spatial evolution of magnetic field parameters, and multi-wavelength observations of the AR 11226 and AR 11261, observed during 02-09 June 2011 and 31 July to 06 August 2011 respectively, to probe the origin of the associated solar energetic particles (SEPs). The magnetic-field toplogy of both ARs shows complex magnetic structure of β and βγ configuration. The X-ray observations by GOES and RHESSI reveal that the AR 11226 as well as AR 11261 has been most turbulent to produce flares accompanying CMEs and SEPs. We restrict our study of magnetic field evolution of ARs to helio-longitudes E20-W70. The AR 11226 produced 28 flares (⩾ GOES C-class) and 8 CMEs as well as 5 SEPs. On the other hand, the AR 11261 produced 29 flares (⩾ GOES C class), 8 CMEs as well as 5 SEPs. We study the temporal evolution of magnetic field parameters viz. gradient, shear, rotation to probe the origin of the energy release in the flare and associated CME and SEP. We do not find convincing relationship in view of predicting SEPs.

We investigate 10 M-class flares observed by the SOXS mission to study the influence of the solar flare plasma cooling on the Neupert effect. We study the temporal evolution of 1s cadence X-ray emission in 7-10 keV and 10-30 keV representing the SXR and HXR emission respectively. We model the cooling as a function of time by the ratio of time-derivative of SXR with the HXR flux. We report that the ratio is exponentially decaying in rise phase of the flare, which, however, saturates after the impulsive phase. We estimate the cooling time scale in the rise phase for the flares and found to be varying between 39 and 525 s.

We report a pair of oppositely directed sudden impulses (SI), in the geomagnetic field (ΔX), at ground stations, called SI+ – SI− pairs, that occurred between 1835 UT and 2300 UT on 23 April 1998. The SI+ – SI− pair, was well correlated with corresponding variations in the solar wind density, while solar wind velocity and the southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field (Bz) did not show any correspondence. This event had no source on the visible solar disk but was associated with a rear-side fast partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) and an optically occulted M1.4 class solar flare behind the west limb. This event was unique in that one could clearly identify variations in ΔX at ground stations with solar wind parameters.