Abstract: The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a crucial quantity for the evolution of galaxies. It determines the fraction of stars in various mass ranges; hence it affects various crucial feedback mechanisms (e.g. from supernovae and radiation by massive stars). In the last years, systematic IMF variations in galaxies, particularly in low-mass ones, have been reported. I will review in this seminar what is know about IMF variations in dwarf galaxies and I will show how these variations affect the chemical evolution of galaxies. I will describe in particular the so-called integrated galactic IMF (IGIMF) theory, according to which the IMF is steeper in dwarf galaxies and flatter in larger ones. I will show which evidences support this theory and which evidenced do not support it. However, the IMF does not only change the rate of metal production. It changes also the dynamics and thermodynamics of gas, which in turn affect star formation and metal circulation. I will then review our efforts to implemented IMF variations in chemo-dynamical simulations of dwarf-galaxy evolution and I will show the multiple ways in which IMF variations can affect the dynamical and chemical evolution of galaxies. I will finish my presentation with some new ideas and modelling of the induced star formation in supershells and its connection with the formation and evolution of globular clusters.

Abstract: A number of the meteor shower outbursts and storms occurred in recent years starting with several Leonid storms around 2000. The methods of the meteoroid streams modelling became better and more precise. An increasing number of the observing systems enabled better coverage of such events. The observers provide modellers with an important feedback on precision of their models. Here we present comparison of several observational results with the model predictions. As the main source of the data the video observations of our team are used.

Abstract: The Solar Physics Department studies is not only focused on the basic research and ground observations of the active phenomena from the solar atmosphere throughout the whole heliosphere but also participates in development of remote/in-situ space experiments on several future ESA missions. Currently the largest involvement inheres in the Solar Orbiter mission (namely the RPW, STIX, and METIS experiments) with a planned launch in 2018. Another two contributions are related to the ASPIICS sensor on mission Proba-3 and RPWI instrument on mission JUICE. Here the current status of all the space hardware activities will be presented.

Abstract: The current astronomy is flooded by the data. Some instruments have been already producing petabyte-scaled data flows, the reduction and analysis of which require supercomputing clusters. Astronomy becomes the data-driven science where the major part of budget of big projects will not go into telescope and instrumentation but to the data processing infrastructure. Astronomy, as well as other science disciplines has begun to recognize informatics, advanced statistics and machine learning as a key part of its methodology and new astronomical discoveries are expected from knowledge extraction of federated astronomical databases and archives. The new ways of multi-dimensional data analysis are being tested using wider range of 3D visualization devices including the immersive Virtual reality and virtual worlds. The changing nature of next-decade astronomy also requires education of a new type of experts - the astronomical data scientist with deep knowledge of both astronomy and physics as well as modern computer science and software engineering, well prepared to analyze petabyte-scale data in multi-cloud environment. The need to address all such problems led to the emergence of a new astronomical discipline - Astroinformatics. We give a brief overview of its subjects and methodology and present some astroinformatics projects ongoing in the Astronomical Institute of CAS in collaboration with several faculties of information technology in CR.