Spearheading the undertaking is professor Annapurni Subramaniam. Pic: Pallava Bagla

Merak Village, Ladakh:

The Solar is the harbinger of life on Earth, however we perceive so little of our nearest star. The Solar sometimes will get very offended; it then unleashes huge photo voltaic storms that take down or burn satellites and digital gear on Earth. To trace the Solar, India seeks to arrange the Nationwide Giant Photo voltaic Telescope (NLST) in Ladakh.

Spearheading the undertaking is professor Annapurni Subramaniam, Director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, who says web site characterisation has been undertaken and land has been acquired. Solely the ultimate clearance is required for this huge and much-needed undertaking to get off the bottom. It’s virtually a decade late.

In keeping with the IIA, the Nationwide Giant Photo voltaic Telescope shall be a two-metre class optical and close to infra-red (IR) observational facility. It’s designed to deal with an array of key scientific points associated to the origin and dynamics of photo voltaic magnetic fields at a spatial decision of 0.1-0.3 arc-second.

The instrument has a broad scope to assist and substantiate the multitude of photo voltaic atmospheric observations from the space-based Aditya L1 satellite tv for pc mission and ground-based photo voltaic telescope in Rajasthan’s Udaipur.

In keeping with IIA, photo voltaic storms or Coronal Mass Ejections are giant expulsions of billions of tons of plasma and its related magnetic fields from the Solar into the interplanetary area, a few of which might hit the Earth and produce geomagnetic storms. Excessive geomagnetic storms have the potential to hurt space-technology dependent human life on Earth, akin to disrupting radio communication, GPS alerts, and many others. Predicting these storms is a vital space of scientific analysis at IIA and lots of different establishments in India as properly.

(Above) Dr Ajay Okay Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to Authorities of India (second from proper) visiting the Merak web site for the Nationwide Giant Photo voltaic Telescope.

The telescope is to be put in on the banks of the Pangong Tso Lake in Merak, Ladakh, at an altitude of round 4,200 metres. Being a high-altitude chilly desert, this location is greatest fitted to optical and close to IR observations. The positioning offers important intervals of clear skies with excessive transparency. The laminar winds with delicate gusts all through the day present intervals of excellent readability.

The Nationwide Giant Photo voltaic Telescope was to be the ground-based counterpart to ISRO’s space-based photo voltaic observatory, the Aditya L-1 satellite tv for pc.

Dr Subramaniam says it so occurs the satellite tv for pc is already in orbit and offering outcomes whereas the NLST received delayed. She provides if all goes properly, very quickly the approvals will come by way of and the telescope might come up in a couple of years. The telescope undertaking will value upwards of Rs 150 crore.

Finding the telescope on the banks of the large Pangong Tso Lake has many benefits – the water physique gives a calmer environment to make sharper observations and the continual breeze may even assist preserve the devices cool since photo voltaic telescopes are inclined to warmth up very quick.

The Workplace of the Principal Scientific Advisor lately introduced out a doc ‘Mega Science Imaginative and prescient – 2035’ the place it says “the NLST would be the largest photo voltaic telescope within the nation. We advocate this as the best precedence undertaking in photo voltaic astronomy.”

On July 6, 2024, India’s Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Okay Sood visited the positioning of the photo voltaic telescope and took inventory of the developments. “The area is understood for its exceptionally clear skies and low gentle air pollution, making it a wonderful location for stargazing.”