The close proximity of the Sun, and its extreme apparent brightness, makes it by far the most important star for lives here on Earth. In modern times we have access to powerful telescopes, both on the ground and in space, that observe and monitor the Sun over a wide range of wavelength bands. These vividly demonstrate that the Sun is in fact highly structured and variable over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.

The model photosphere is the core of the theoretical side of our studies.It is a numerical theory from which we compute the theoretical spectrum to be compared to the observations.Our model photospheres are based on hydrostatic equilibrium.To compute such models, we need the temperature distribution, a value for the surface gravity, and the chemical abundances of the electron donors.This chapter reveals how this process is done.

The close proximity of the Sun, and its extreme apparent brightness, makes it by far the most important star for lives here on Earth. In modern times we have access to powerful telescopes, both on the ground and in space, that observe and monitor the Sun over a wide range of wavelength bands. These vividly demonstrate that the Sun is, in fact, highly structured and variable over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.