Juan Martinez Sykora: Report from Radiative Transfer and Numerical Magnetohydrodynamics Summer School in Oslo

This is a report from the Radiative Transfer and Numerical Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) summer School in Oslo. There were 4 different lectures: Introduction to radiative transfer, Numerical Methods in Radiative Transfer, Polarimetry and Numerical MHD. The analysis of electromagnetic radiation is the most importal tool to probe the physical conditions of space plasma outside the reach of in-situ measurements. This is the reason why the theory of radiative transfer has a central position in astrophysics. It has long been realized that static fail to describe the outer atmospheres of stars. In outer solar atmosphere magnetic fields play a crucial role both for the energetics and dynamics. The summer school gives us a basic understanding of radiation, radiative transfer, polarimetry and numerical MHD in the context of stellar atmospheres. As part of my PhD program this talk will concentrate on Polarimetry as lectured by Jorge Sanchez Almeida.