SUNRISE: The Mission and Selected Science Results

The magnetic field at the surface of the Sun is concentrated in magnetic features that often have spatial extents of 100 km or less. The study of the fine scale structure of the Sun's magnetic field has been hampered by the limited spatial resolution of the available observations. This has recently changed thanks to various new high-resolution facilities, among them the SUNRISE observatory, built around the largest solar telescope to leave the ground, and containing two science instruments. SUNRISE successfully had its first long-duration science flight on a stratospheric balloon in June 2009 and a host of scientific results have been obtained from the data. After a brief introduction to the Sunrise mission, an overview of selected results obtained so far will be given. A reflight at higher solar activity is currently being prepared.