Astronomisches Institut

Space Weather

Space Weather

Aktuelles

20.2.2024

Successfully completed MSc theses

Daniel Zahnd and Janis Witmer successfully defended their MSc theses. Daniel's thesis is titled "Investigation of the solar atmosphere using machine learning techniques" and deals with applying normalizing flows to accelerate inversions of SST observations. Janis' thesis is "A machine learning approach to investigate the evolution of sunspots" and he created a transformer model with the goal of predicting the evolution of pores into sunspots.

22.12.2023

SERI-funded ERC Consolidator Grant for Prof. Dr. Lucia Kleint

Prof. Dr. Lucia Kleint has received one of the highly coveted and competitive ERC Consolidator Grants 2022, which starts on January 1, 2024 and is now funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) (Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation SBFI). This grant will also be used to build a new instrument for the observatory in Zimmerwald, which will be used to study eruptions on the sun and stars. In an article in uniAKTUELL and a video Prof. Kleint explains, among other things, why the conditions for her research at the University of Bern are so ideal, what she advises young female scientists and what she does with the funding.

15.12.2023

Welcome Dorian Paillon

We are happy to welcome Dorian Paillon who started his PhD thesis on designing and building a spectrograph for flare observations.

1. 9. 2023

Welcome Pranjali Sharma and Moritz Meyer zu Westram

We are happy to welcome Pranjali Sharma and Moritz Meyer zu Westram who started their PhD theses on machine learning applied to solar data.

24. 2. 2023

Welcome Daniel Zahnd and Janis Witmer

We are happy to welcome Daniel Zahnd and Janis Witmer who started their MSc theses on machine learning applied to solar data.

1. 7. 2022

Move to the Unversity of Bern

With the appointment of Prof. Lucia Kleint as the vice-director of the Zimmerwald observatory, our group moved from the University of Geneva to the University of Bern.

20. 5. 2022

Successful Observations at SST

We successfully completed 9 observing days at the Swedish Solar Telescope in La Palma. The days were awarded to PI Jonas Zbinden in a competitive selection of the SOLARNET program. Observations at ground-based solar telescopes offer unique capabilities to measure magnetic fields of flares. A lucky coincidence also allowed us to observe a lunar eclipse from the observatory.

15. 5. 2021

Welcome Jonas Zbinden

We are happy to welcome Jonas Zbinden who is starting his PhD thesis on solar/stellar flares and machine learning.

19. 1. 2021

SPD/AAS Karen Harvey prize 2021

The 2021 Karen Harvey Prize for significant contributions to the study of the Sun early in a person's professional career is awarded to Dr. Lucia Kleint. Her contributions are numerous, among them observations and modeling of turbulent magnetic fields in the quiet Sun; analysis of unprecedented high precision spectropolarimetric and spectroscopic measurements of the photosphere and chromosphere during flares; and applications of machine learning techniques to flare data. Dr. Kleint coordinated the flight software team for the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX), now flying on Solar Orbiter. She then led the German solar telescopes on Tenerife, where she spearheaded a major redesign and upgrade of the optical system and operations of the GREGOR telescope. She now leads a research group at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.