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During the period 1981-1984, major developments have been made in the analysis of the shape and shifts of photospheric lines used as a diagnostic of the convection in the outer layers of the Sun. The first three-dimensional numerical simulation of the solar granulation has been developed, and it, is able to reproduce with some success most of the observed morphological and spectroscopic properties of granulation. It is becoming clear that the properties of the solar granulation are variable over the solar cycle. Many questions remain to be solved; further progress will rely heavily on expected improvements of the spatial resolution of the observations and the availability of larger computers.