Severnyi, Andrei

Born Apr. 28 (May 11), 1913, in Tula. Soviet astrophysicist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968, corresponding member, 1958). Hero of Socialist Labor (1973). Member of the CPSU since 1941.

Severnyi graduated from Moscow University in 1935. From 1938 to 1946 he was on the staff of the P. K. Shternberg State Astronomical Institute. In 1946 he became a staff member of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was made director of the observatory in 1952.

Severnyi’s principal works deal with theoretical astrophysics and solar physics. A connection was established by him between solar flares and changes in the structure of local magnetic fields. He studied the complex structure of the flares, investigated the properties of point sources of continuum and line emission, and determined the physical conditions in the flares. Severnyi investigated the presence of several rare chemical elements in the sun. He demonstrated that the general magnetic field of the sun results from the superposition of local fields randomly distributed over the surface. He was the first to detect the weak magnetic fields of normal stars.

Severnyi was vice-president of the International Astonomical Union from 1964 to 1970. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1952 and has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the October Revolution, three other orders, and several medals.