The German Science Foundation (DFG) has approved on 3. June 2024 a proposal by Dr. Juan Manuel Borrero (PI) and Dr. Ivan Milic (Co-PI) from the Solar Magnetism group. The research project, entitled Advancing Currents Determination in the Chromosphere (ACDC), will be funded for a period of three years and aims to improve our ability to forecast explosive and energetic events in the solar atmosphere by measuring the electric current vector in the solar photosphere and chromosphere. Electric currents are generated by non-potential magnetic fields, which are known to be highly unstable configurations. As such, they are prone to sudden changes in the connectivity of the field lines towards a lower energy state (potential configuration). The energy difference between the initial non-potential (high energy state) and the final potential (low energy state) is released into the plasma by a process called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is responsible for phenomena such as flares and coronal mass ejections (see figure on the right) that can affect the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Predicting such phenomena is therefore a high priority for solar physicists worldwide and in particular for the Solar Magnetism group at the Institute for Solar Physics.