The Sun as a Variable Star and Its Magnetic Field

Abstract

Magnetic fields, which underlie the observed solar activity’s phenomena, are among the main objects of studies in the Institute of Solar Terrestrial Physics, which turns 60 in 2020. Vladimir Ye. Stepanov, the corresponding member of the RAS, did a lot for these studies. In Irkutsk, full-vector magnetometers were built for six observatories in the USSR, German Democratic Republic, and Czechoslovakia, which reinforced scientific contacts and exchange. In the following years, Solar Telescope for Operative Prediction was developed, and its samples were installed at ISTP Sayan and Baikal Observatories, as well as at Mountain Astronomical Station of the Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Kislovodsk and at Solar station in Ussuriysk. It was a great initiative to develop the modern "Solar Service”. The paper is dedicated to some of the results of the group.