Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120359810400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Solar physics going through renaissance’

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Solar physics in India is going through a “renaissance” with new facilities for observations and with missions such as the multi-wavelength ASTROSAT and ADITYA coronagraph to study the solar corona, said K. Kasturirangan, Member of Parliament and Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies.

He was speaking here on Tuesday at the inauguration of a four-day international conference organised by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) on “Magnetic coupling between the Interior and the atmosphere of the Sun”.

Tracing the major solar discoveries made from Indian soil in the 19th and 20th centuries, Dr. Kasturirangan said that both ground-based research and space-borne instruments were crucial in understanding solar activity and its impact on near Earth space weather.

The conference marks 100 years since the discovery of the Evershed Effect from the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1909. The Evershed Effect, named after John Evershed who discovered it, demonstrates the interaction between the sun’s plasma and its magnetic field and helped in the scientific understanding of solar activity.