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Infrared Solar Physics Has Arrived! (1Jun92) (from NSO, NOAO Newsletter No. 30, 1 June 1992) More than 95 astronomers and physicists from 15 countries gathered in Tucson during 2-6 March 1992 for IAU Symposium 154, "Infrared Solar Physics, 1 um-1 mm." The range and depth of the scientific results presented at this meeting left no doubt that infrared observations now play a vital and growing role in the understanding of key problems in solar physics. The festivities opened with a session on infrared and sub-millimeter observations at the total eclipse of 1991. The highlights included three independent searches for elusive and controversial circumsolar dust, submillimeter observations that probed the inhomogeneous structure of the chromosphere, and a direct measurement of the height of formation of the 12 um emission lines. A later session devoted to the 12 um and related atomic lines proved that the essential physics of these once-mysterious transitions is now well in hand. Several contributions on solar activity vividly illustrated that the infrared and submillimeter regime is an almost unexplored frontier in the understanding of solar flares and activity. Other sessions explored the use of infrared observations in elucidating inhomogeneities in the solar atmosphere over a wide range of heights, the unique power of the infrared for measuring and mapping the true strength of magnetic fields in the photosphere, tantalizing glimpses from space of the large portions of the infrared spectrum blocked by the atmosphere, and progress in laboratory spectroscopy and atomic physics, the bulwarks of solar and stellar astronomy. The participants were united in the belief that infrared solar physics is entering a period of rapid, worldwide growth. Their view of the future embodied this conviction in the form of wide-ranging plans: space-based observations, the Large Earth-based Solar Telescope, a 4-m McMath Telescope, a large reflecting coronagraph, a new sub-millimeter observatory, adaptive optics and interferometry, and the development of instrumentation incorporating infrared array technology. A successful meeting depends on the efforts of many people and organizations. The Scientific Organizing Committee is grateful for generous support from the IAU, the Local Organizing Committee (A. Barringer, M. Giampapa, J. Jefferies, G. Kopp, C. Lindsey, D. Rabin, J. Wagner), NSO and NOAO, NSF and NASA, and Infrared Laboratories, Inc. The proceedings will be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Doug Rabin
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