Attracted By The Fascinating Magnetism Of The Sun

The Sun is a quite active star, where still enigmatic phenomena characterize its life. This one is modulated at large scales by a remarkable degree of order (11-yr cycle and other superimposed cycles) even if the regenerating convective source of the whole magnetic activity is characterized by a chaotic and turbulent behavior. Several aspects of the solar magnetic activity are still not completely understood, such as the time-length of cycles, the dependency of the activity on the latitude, the actual role of the tachocline with the exact location of the dynamo regenerating sources. Here the solar dynamo problem is reviewed in the light of recent developments in theories and observations. In particular, global spherical simulations of convective dynamos and numerical experiments on Parker dynamo waves will be discussed. This latter are recently drawing a possible way for an unitary view of both large-scale and small-scale dynamo, contrary to the conventional theory that considers these as complementary approaches of the same problem: the astrophysical magnetism.