Description of the institutions
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain)
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The IAC is a highly international research centre. Its research topics include most areas of astrophysics: solar physics, the structure and evolution of stars, the interstellar medium, galactic astrophysics, cosmology and the structure of the Universe, telescope design and construction, high spatial resolution techniques, infrared and optical instrumentation, and astronomical space projects. It manages the Observatories at the Canary Islands where more than 60 international research institutions from 19 countries have installed and operate their telescopes. The IAC has relevant experience in solar physics research and instrumentation development. Examples of successful instruments are The Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter (TIP, a common user instrument installed at the German VTT of the Observatorio del Teide in 1999 and which will moved the new 1.5 meter GREGOR when this telescope starts operation) and the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX, instrument that flew onboard the balloon Sunrise, built by a Spanish consortium coordinated by the IAC). It has participated in numerous EU projects, and coordinated projects like the Training Network Solaire and the Conceptual Design of the European Solar Telescope. The IAC will act as the overall co-ordinator for the project, and contact point with the EC.
University of Graz (Austria)
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The IGAM (Institute of Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology is part of the institute of physics of the University of Graz. The main research area in astrophysics is solar physics. Currently about 10 students are working on their Bachelor thesis, 7 on their master thesis and 7 on their doctorate. Education in solar physics is obligatory for all physics students. To the IGAM the solar observatory Kanzelhöhe belongs. It is located about 200 west of Graz at an altitude of 1400 m and there is permanent staff there (3 scientists, 2 technicians). There is also a strong exchange with students from Graz. Solar observation started on Kanzelhöhe after World War II and there exists a large data archive already in digital format that is accessible to users.
Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van Belgie (Belgium)
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The Royal Observatory of Belgium is a Belgian government research institute organized in four operational directorates. These are Reference Systems and Planetology, Seismology and Gravimetry, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and finally Solar Physics and Space Weather. In total, ROB employs about 180 people. The operational directorate dedicated to solar physics (SIDC) is a group of 42 members, including scientists, engineers and support staff. The research covers observational and theoretical studies in solar and space plasma physics, including in particular spectroscopic and imaging observations of the solar atmosphere, theoretical investigations of magnetic reconnection, research of solar irradiance and Sun - heliosphere connections, as well as solar image processing. The SIDC infrastructure includes a dedicated building for ground-based solar observing in which the Uccle Solar Equatorial Table (USET) is mounted with 4 operational telescopes. These telescopes (white light and Halpha) are operating on a daily basis and support the World Data Centre activities. In space, SIDC is PI of two instruments on board the PROBA2 mission: SWAP, a full Sun EUV imager, and LYRA, a high-cadence radiometer. It is also co-PI institute of EUI, the suite of imagers on board Solar Orbiter which contains a high resolution EUV imager. SIDC is also coinvestigator institute of SOHO/EIT and was program leader of special high-cadence operations. Scientists at the SIDC are also co-investigators on Hinode, STEREO, SDO and PICARD. ROB hosts a SDO data centre, which is the European root for distribution of SDO/AIA data, and whenever necessary, SDO/HMI data. Recently it became a Virtual Solar Observatory server in order to alleviate the load on the US
server.
Sveuciliste u Zagrebu - Geodetski Fakultet (Croatia)
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Hvar Observatory operates two solar telescopes on a single mount.
- The Photospheric Telescope (D = 217 mm, f = 2450 mm) with field of view of 11.28 arcmin, yielding the resolution of 0.33 arcsec/pix with with 4MPix CCD camera. The optical system consists of Baader AstroSolar photo film, iris diaphragm, Baader solar continuum and UV/IR cut filter, 75mm lens and CCD camera.
- The Chromospheric Telescope (D = 130 mm, f = 1950 mm) with field of view of 7.15 arcmin which gives 0.21 arcsec/pix resolution with 4MPix CCD camera. The optical system consists of an energy reduction filter, iris diaphragm, main objective, auxiliary lens, Ha filter and CCD camera.
The main area of interest is the study of the solar photosphere and chromosphere and investigation of the solar corona.
Astronomický ústav AV ČR v.v.i (Czech Republic)
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Astronomicky ustav AVCR vvi (Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i.), located in Ondrejov near Prague, is a public research institution established by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The research covers a wide range of topics: solar physics, meteor physics, stellar astronomy, galactic astronomy and dynamics of bodies of the solar system including the artificial satellites. Several instruments are used daily for various kinds of observations, e.g. 2-m stellar telescope, photometric telescope, horizontal solar spectrographs, double solar refractor, solar radiospectrographs, photographic European fireball network, etc. Research in the Solar Department is concentrated to the physics of flares and prominences, structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, and space weather. Observing data from ground-based (SST, VTT,
Themis, DST/IBIS) and space (SOHO, HINODE, TRACE, RHESSI) instruments and intense numerical simulations are used for this purpose. Several instruments for space research have been proposed and constructed. The institute is currently involved in several international projects of new ground-based and space facilities (ALMA, GREGOR, EST, Solar Orbiter, Proba-3).
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
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CNRS is a government-funded research organization. Research in all fields of knowledge is carried out through its seven institutes and three national institutes. CNRS laboratories (or research units) are located throughout France, and employ a large body of tenured researchers, engineers, and support staff. Laboratories are all on renewable four-year contracts, with bi-annual evaluation by the National Center for Scientific Research. There are two types of labs: CNRS intramural labs (fully funded and managed by CNRS and called UPR, or unités propres de recherche, in French); and Joint labs (partnered with universities, other research organizations, or industry, and called UMR, or unités mixtes de recherche, in French). CNRS-UPS 853 THEMIS scientific and technical crew dedication is mainly the operation, maintenance, and upgrade of the telescope THEMIS. Typical in-house technical realisations are optical designs and realisation for instrumentation upgrade (active optics, detectors, polarimetric analysis). With a huge background in the design and use of a modern solar telescope (THEMIS is the only alt-az solar telescope that has been running for 10 years).
Université de Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (France)
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The UPS (Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III) hosts the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) which is operating four different research sites in the south-west of France. The OMP is a large “Sciences of the Universe” Institute whose research activities go from seismology and geophysics, to oceanography, atmospheric sciences, and astronomy & space sciences. Since January 2011, astronomy is represented there by a single institute called IRAP (aka. CNRS/Umr5277, see also http://www.irap.omp.eu). In particular, the Tarbes site of OMP hosts the French solar database named BASS 2000 (http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr). Such a database for ground-based solar observations is a unique tool, at least at the European level. It was mainly attached to the large ground-based solar telescope Thémis. It has the capacity and experience to store, manipulate and perform reduction and pre-analysis of a large volume of data since 2000. We also have expertise in other astronomical data (e.g., stellar spectropolarimetry) and VO techno-logies. Besides that, many scientists from the IRAP/PSE group (solar & stellar physics) have recognized expertises in both solar and stellar physics.
Winlight Optics (France)
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The core business of WINLIGHT OPTICS is to manufacture complex optical components. These parts are key components of optical subsystems for astronomy, space or military purposes. WINLIGHT OPTICS know-how is well known for all subsystems based on molecular adhesion and is already involved in many scientific projects based on this technology. WINLIGHT OPTICS is also participating to several R&D programs to increase the maturity of the technology with regards to space constraints. WINLIGHT OPTICS (www.winlight-optics.com) has just delivered a large image slicer system for MUSE instrument for VLT (ESO).
Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (Germany)
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The Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS), is the largest German institute specialised in solar physics. The institute operates the German solar telescopes at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife and lead the construction of the 1.5 m telescope GREGOR. It built the wave-front sensor for image stabilization system for the balloon-borne telescope SUNRISE, develops a visible tunable filter spectrometer for the ATST and participates in other international instrumentation projects for the ground and for space. The research at the KIS is focused on the observational and theoretical description of solar magnetic activity. The institute is also specialised in building and operating spectrographs and spectropolarimeters and has significant expertise in the development of adaptive optics systems.
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (Germany)
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The key topics of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP) are cosmic magnetic fields and extragalactic astrophysics. A considerable part of the Institute's efforts aim at the development of research technology in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes, and e-science. The Institute is a foundation according to civil law and is a member of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Association is a network of 87 independent research institutes and scientific service facilities, which strive for scientific solutions for major social challenges. The Institute conducts its research mandate in the framework of national, European and international collaborations. Participation in the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) as well as operation of the robotic telescopes of the Stellar Activity Observatory (STELLA) and the GREGOR solar telescope are worth special mentioning. Each of the main research areas Cosmic Magnetic Fields and Extragalactic Astrophysics is organized into three scientific program areas: Magneto-Hydrodynamics and Turbulence, Physics of the Sun, Stellar Physics and Activity as well as Interstellar Medium, Galaxies and Quasars, and Cosmology and Large-Scale Structure. These research areas are closely intertwined through the application of related mathematical and physical methods and through joint projects in the development and adoption of new technologies. The scientific program areas are consequently accompanied by four program areas focusing on the development of novel research technology: Telescope Control and Robotics, High-Resolution Spectroscopy and Polarimetry, 3D Spectroscopy, and Supercomputing and E-Science.
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften E. V. (Germany)
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The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), Germany's most successful research organization, is represented by the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS). The MPS is one of the leading institutes working on solar physics world-wide. The activities of the MPS cover a wide range of heliospheric physics: from the determination of the structure and evolution of the solar interior by using the tools of helioseismology to the exploration of the outer heliosphere using space probes. The magnetism of the solar atmosphere is one of the key topics of research at the MPS, which is being addressed by space missions and balloon borne telescopes as well as ground based observatories. MPS addresses the scientific topics mentioned above a manifold manner, covering theoretical modelling, realistic simulations, observations and data analysis. Staff members, PostDocs and PhD students address these topics in interdisciplinary collaboration between the various fields of research.
PnSensor Gmbh (Germany)
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The key competence of PNSensor is the development of detectors for space research and for middle as well as high energy physics. Employees of PNSensor are or have been part of the development, production and the qualification of radiation detectors for the following projects:
- XMM/Newton, a satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), which was launched in 1999 and since then is sending excellent pictures of the firmament in the X-ray field down to earth. It is providing us with answers about the creation of stars. Part of the responsible focal instrument is the pn-CCD. With its area of 6x6 cm2 it is the largest X-ray-CCD ever built.
- SOHO, equipped with wide high sensitive pin-diodes, is sending exciting pictures and spectra of the corona of the sun.
- XEUS, as well a project of ESA, planned for the year 2015, is dedicated to answer important questions about dark matter and energy on the International Space Station (ISS). Therefore new Active Pixel Sensors (APS) are developed. A Silicon-Drift-Detector Field (SDD) will serve as high count rate detector (XEUS Fast Timing -XTRA).
- BepiColombo, a new Mercury mission of the ESA as a common project of the European and Japanese space agency with the intention of studying the Mercury with improved possibilities. The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) is planned as one of the instruments on BepiColombo, which is supposed to analyse he chemical composition of the planet surface. MIXS will contain a DEPFET Macropixel detector developed by PNSensor and shows remarkably higher energy and spacial resolution.
- CFEL; the up to now biggest and most powerful X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL), the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), went into operation at the Stanford National Linear Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). After the successful commissioning of the first beamline, the interest of performing experiments at that place with the CAMP CFEL-ASG Multi-Purpose Instrument started growing. The CAMP instrument was developed, built and installed in a close collaboration of the Max-Planck Advanced-Study Group (MPG-ASG), PNSensor and the photon science group of DESY. It combines the unique combination of two high-resolution pnCCD imaging detectors together with ion- and electron spectrometers and allows for a large variety of experiments.
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
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The current National Institute of Optics (CNR-INO) is a CNR Research Institute in Italy, working for over eighty years in the Optics sector. The activities are divided into pure and applied research, technological transfer, consultancy for public institutions and private businesses. One of the classical subjects of research that have characterized CNR-INO since its foundation (1930) is quality testing of optical components and systems. In this area CNR-INO has produced outstanding results in the past (particularly the so-called "Ronchi test"). Today it has constituted a patrimony of resources that regard in particular the absolute measurement of the geometrical form and the optical quality of components and systems. It maintains operative capabilities to the state of the art, with advanced research and a metrology room accessible to external users, and has adopted a quality system complying with the norms in force.
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (Italy)
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The Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF, National Institute for Astrophysics http://www.inaf.it) is the Italian public research organization that promotes, performs and co-ordinates astrophysics and astronomy research in Italy, in cooperation with Universities and other organizations. As of 2013, INAF has a 600-strong research staff, as well as 300 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, distributed in 17 research centres all over the country, plus a number of observing facilities and infrastructures in Italy and abroad. INAF has a long expertise in solar physics research and instrumentation development, including the successful IBIS imaging spectropolarimeter installed since 2003 at the US DST/NSO.
Scientific and technological activities within SOLARNET and related subjects are currently carried out in several INAF centers, namely Trieste, Torino, Florence, Rome, Naples, Catania and Palermo, which are all available as possible hosts of young researchers within the mobility program. Possible research topics range from high resolution studies of the solar atmosphere, helio- and astero-seismology, spectropolarimetry of magnetic structures, global solar irradiance, flares, to MHD modelling of coronal flows and heating. Technological activities involve instrument controls, data archiving and optimization of large interferometers for solar research, development and application of numerical experiments on high performance computing systems.
S.R.S. Engineering Design S.R.L (Italy)
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Born as a spin-off of the Nuclear Engineering Department of the Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, the SRS company (Servizi di Ricerche e Sviluppo = Development and Research Services) started to work for nuclear fission projects in the early seventies. The experience gained in thermal-hydraulics and mechanics gave them the chance to work with FIAT-Aviazione first, and then with FIAT-Auto, which became their main customer in terms of technological level and turnover. In the nineties, they started working for Ferrari (both “normal” production and racing team) in the analysis and design of aluminium and composite material structures (mainly carbon fibre). In the same period they became one the most important consultant of ELASIS (FIAT Research Centre in the south of Italy, near Napoles). Since the beginning, they had a software department which developed several methodologies for FIAT (for instance, engine mounts and brakes are designed using own codes). At the present most of the company’s budget comes from aerospace (AVIO S.p.a.) and automotive industries (ELASIS, Ferrary, TRW, FIAT Auto, Power Train), but at the same time it keeps on working on mechanical and thermal issues of the thermonuclear fusion machines (FTU, ITER, JET, Wendelstein 7x, DEMO, etc.). SRS participated in several workpackages of the conceptual design of EST.
Università di Calabria (Italy)
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The University of Calabria (UCAL) is a public institution established in 1972 and organised in 25 departments. UCAL has developed strong international connections for research and education activities. The Astrophysics and Plasmas Research Group at UCAL is part of the Physics Department and has a long research experience and strong international recognition in the fields of Plasma Physics, Solar and Space Physics, Turbulence and Complex Systems. The group has been involved in several studies on solar and heliospheric plasmas, both by means of analysis and interpretation of observational data and of theoretical, numerical simulation and modeling work. More specifically, in the last years the group has spent considerable efforts in the characterization of the dynamical phenomena observed in the solar atmosphere and heliosphere through the analysis of data-sets coming from Earthbased solar instruments (e.g. THEMIS-IPM, DST-IBIS) and spacecrafts (e.g. Ulysses, SOHO, STEREO). Another important research subject has been the study of nonlinear dynamics and statistical properties of Hydrodynamic (HD) and Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Moreover, in the last decade the group has developed a wide expertise in building up numerical codes both for data analysis and for the numerical solution of non linear systems of partial differential equations, making extensive use of massively parallel High Performance Computing.
Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata (Italy)
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The University of Roma Tor Vergata is a public institution, aimed at scientific researches and cultural formation, organized in 27 departments. The Department of Physics organizes and coordinates didactic and research activities in physics. The staff of the Department is made by a total of 81 researchers. The Department hosts a section of the National Astrophysics Institute-INAF and of the National Nuclear Physics Institute-INFN. The UTOV Solar and Space Physics team has a long practice in space missions and projects (Pioneer probes 6, 7 & 8, Helios, GEOS 1 & 2, Giotto, HEOS-1 & 2, ISEE-2, ADAHELI), design and construction of CCD and CMOS based acquisition systems (IPM-THEMIS & IBIS-DST/NSO), and analysis of space and ground-based solar spectral datasets. The Group has also a wide laboratory experience with visible and IR thermally controlled interferometric filters, mechanics, and radiation rejection shields. In the framework of ADAHELI project a laboratory of optics and spectroscopy was realized in the Department to design, realize and test a space prototype of a capacitance stabilized Fabry-Perot etalon. UTOV team includes a researcher of L'Aquila University, involved in the field of data analysis and management and h/w control, and several PhD students. Researches on solar photosphere: structure, convection, dynamics and magnetic fields, and solar irradiance variability have been addressed by ground based data, space data, balloon experiments, and numerical simulations.
Universitetet i Oslo (Norway)
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The research activity of the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics of the University of Oslo is concentrated around solar physics and cosmology. It presently has 11 permanent professors, 10 postdoctoral fellows and 15 PhD students. The solar physics group participates heavily in the Hinode and IRIS space borne solar observatories and contracted access to 40 observing days per year at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope is utilized vigorously. A very strong activity has been built up within numerical modelling of astrophysical plasmas and radiation fields, with main application to heating of the solar chromosphere and corona. The institute is the host of the European Science Data Centre for the Hinode satellite.
Uniwersytet Wrocławski (Poland)
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Astronomical Institute of the University of Wroclaw (UWR) is the leading institute in Poland working on solar physics. The activities of UWR covers a wide area of heliophysics: spectroscopic observations of the solar active phenomena (flares, prominences, active regions), NLTE modelling of the solar atmosphere, hydrodynamics modelling of solar flares, investigation of flares in X-rays. The Institute has its own observing station, where there are several solar observing instruments: a unique 2D imaging solar spectrograph MSDP working with the Large Coronagraph (D=53 cm) and the Horizontal Telescope (d=15 cm). The observations are performed with fast top-quality CCD cameras manufactured by Photometric or Andor companies. These instruments are intensively used e.g. for flare and prominence observations. Especially, the new fast Andor camera allows observing fast solar active phenomena with the time-cadence up to 32 fps. Besides of heliophysics, UWR has a large astrophysics group working mainly on the pulsating variable stars, including the newest data from Kepler satellite. The Institute has 12 PhD students.
Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovakia)
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Astronomical institute - Solar Department is owner of three solar instruments.
- Double solar coronagraph with spectrograph (DSK) 2x 20 cm (f=4 m, dispersion of the spectrograph =0.8 nm/mm) placed at Lomnicky Peak observatory (2632 m)
- Horizontal Solar Telescope with Spectrograph (HSTS) 50 cm (Coelostat Jensch 2x60 cm, Telescope Kutter type spheric mirror(D=50 cm, f=35 m), Spectrograph, Collimator and Camera mirrors 25 cm and 40 cm (f=9.65 m), Dispersion of the spectrograph 0.16 nm/mm in 1. order.
- CoMP-S, a 2D full Stokes spectropolarimeter attached to a 20cm Lyot coronagraph at the Lomnicky Peak Observatory for high resolution spectropolarimetry of selected coronal, chromospheric and prominence emission lines in visible and near IR spectral regions.
The main field of interest in solar physics is high resolution spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry of the solar quiet and active atmosphere and investigation of the solar corona.
Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria (Spain)
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The International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) was created in March 1987 as a consortium between the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), with the collaboration of the UNESCO. CIMNE employs currently some 150 scientists and engineers from different technical fields and nationalities (over 15 different countries), working in the development and application of numerical methods (basically the finite element method) to a wide class of engineering problems. The research activities of CIMNE cover non linear analysis and safety studies of structures, shape optimisation in structural and fluid dynamic problems, computational fluid dynamics studies for both external and internal flow problems, numerical simulation of material deformation and forming processes for the manufacturing industry.
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Spain)
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The Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) is part of Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest research organization in Spain. It runs the Calar Alto and Sierra Nevada Observatories and carries out research in almost all branches of modern astrophysics, including solar physics. Currently, the solar physics group at IAA-CSIC consists of 4 staff scientists, 1 postdoctoral fellow, 2 PhD students, and 4 engineers. The research interests of the group focus on the magnetic coupling and dynamic processes of the solar atmosphere. These topics are studied through very high spatial resolution observations in different wavelength ranges. The group brings expertise in the interpretation of spectropolarimetric data through the inversion of the radiative transfer equation and theoretical analyses of the sensitivity of spectral lines. A number of inversion codes have been developed in-house. IAA-CSIC is co-I on (and provides hardware for) Solar Orbiter (ESA) and the SUNRISE balloon-borne solar observatory. IAA-CSIC is the ESA representative to the Hinode satellite SWG, and participates in the SWGs of ATST and EST, the next-generation 4m solar telescopes. (http://spg.iaa.es)
Fundación TECNALIA Research & Innovation (Spain)
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TECNALIA is a Spanish private technology corporation composed by the technical centres of LABEIN, ROBOTIKER, FATRONIK, NEIKER, ESI, and INASMET. TECNALIA Corporation has a total of more than 1500 employees, presence in 20 countries and more than 15 technical and pilot plants sites. The existing business units are 22. Between these sectorial units, TECNALIA-Transport-Aerospace unit has a large reputation on space technology. The space specialization is the advanced materials and processes for launchers subsystems, and spacecrafts components. This experience has been gained through large number of R&D contracts with ESA and the development of flight hardware. Related to Solar physics, TECNALIA lead the EC project titled SIDER related to radiation shielding techniques for solar orbiter mission. Aerospace activities represent a group of 110 research and 7 M€ annual turnover in TECNALIA. Related to the TECNALIA activities proposed for Solar Physics in technology transferspin/ in-spin-off, the team has a large experience (since 1999) on the brokerage actions for transfer technology. It is reported at ESA TTN results more than 100 identified space technology, 30 reported feasibility studies and valorisation, more than 200 needs extracted and more than 20 successful transfer cases with market diversification and pre-engineering studies. Particularly related to our participation in the project, TECNALIA has perform the feasibility study and business plan for ASTROTECNIA a technical centre directed to transfer astrophysics technology to other markets in collaboration with IAC.
Stockholms Universitet (Sweden)
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The Institute for Solar Physics operates the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) on La Palma, Canary Islands. This has been the most highly resolving solar telescope in the world since its inception in 2002. The Institute has designed and constructed several novel instruments, such as a correlation tracker, a spectropolarimeter (with IAC), three adaptive optics systems, and a high-fidelity dual Fabry-Pérot VIS-NIR imaging polarimeter. It has also been leading in the development of phase-diversity wavefront sensing and image reconstruction techniques. Apart from the instrumental developement work, research topics at the institute include sunspot structure, spectral-line formation, elemental abundances, photospheric and chromospheric magnetic fields. The scientific staff is based at the Astronomy Department of Stockholm University which is located at AlbaNova University Centre in Stockholm. This building houses astronomy, physics, and biotechnology from several universities which creates a lively research environment.
Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (Switzerland)
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Fondazione Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno is a research institute managed by the foundation FIRSOL. The instrumental facilities include the Gregory Coudè 45 cm aperture telescope, the 10 m Czerny Turner spectrograph, the AO system, the Fabry Perot filter system, and the high-resolution polarimeter ZIMPOL. ZIMPOL is currently operated and developed by IRSOL in collaboration with the University of Applied Science of Southern Switzerland SUPSI. Research topics are related to highresolution spectropolarimetry. In collaboration with KIS, IRSOL plans to install a ZIMPOL polarimeter at the GREGOR telescope. This will allow scientific observations as well as the acquisition of know-how for future polarimeters to be installed on large solar telescopes.
Wageningen Universiteit (The Netherlands)
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Wageningen University is a university dedicated to education and knowledge generation in the field of life sciences and natural resources. As an international centre of learning and research it receives students from over a hundred countries. WUR participates in more than 200 EU projects and has received the ECTS label from the European Union. The focus of the Meteorology and Air Quality section of Wageningen University (WUMAQ) is on understanding meteorological and chemical processes in the Atmospheric Boundary and Surface Layer through experimental and modelling efforts.
Over the last 20 years the experimental group within WU-MAQ has been developing and building line-of-sight scintillometers with the goal of characterising atmospheric turbulence in general and more in particular the turbulent transport of heat, watervapour and trace-gasses. The group has significant expertise in analysing scintillation data of all sorts with the goal of deriving turbulence parameters from them. In addition, the group has ample expertise in more traditional atmospheric turbulence measurements and theory.
Queens University Belfast (United Kingdom)
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Queen’s University Belfast, chartered in 1845, is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive UK Universities. The School of Mathematics and Physics has 55 permanent academic staff, around 45 research assistants and 110 PhD students. Profs Mathioudakis and Keenan are members of the Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC), with 3 PDRAs/Fellows and 2 full-time PhD students in solar physics. The QUB team has built and operates the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere (ROSA) imager, located at the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico, USA. ROSA comprises of 6 cameras and operates at a frame rate as high as 200 frames per second. ROSA is one of the instruments that will bridge into the 4m Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) and can accumulate approximately 10 Tbytes of data per 8 hours observing.
University College London (United Kingdom)
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University College London (UCL) is the largest of over 50 colleges and institutes that make up the federal University of London. The Department of Space and Climate Physics, also know as the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), is located away from the main campus in the Surrey Hills, approximately 40 miles to the southwest of London. The Department undertakes frontline research in Solar and Stellar Physics, Planetary Science, Space Plasma Physics, High Energy Astrophysics, Climate Physics, and Photon and Particle Detection Systems. UCL-MSSL is the UK’s largest university space research group, with the capability to design, build and test instruments and other spacecraft systems on site; expertise includes the development of both on-board and ground-software, and the construction of data archives and data mining techniques for missions such as Hinode, Cluster, XMM-Newton, Swift and Herschel. It is the PI institute for the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) instrument on Hinode and has primary responsibility for the data pipeline and archiving the data in order to make it accessible to the community. UCL-MSSL has also been responsible for leading the EGSO, HELIO and CASSIS projects (under FP5 and FP7) that provide both virtual observatory infrastructure and novel data mining techniques, as well as having significant roles in ASTROGRID and VOTECH.
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
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- The Solar and Stellar Physics Group is part of the School of Physics and Astronomy (in the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering) at the University of Birmingham. The School is comprised of around 45 academic staff, together with around 80 postdoctoral researchers, around 120 PhD students, and about 50 technical staff, all spread across six research groups spanning the areas of astronomy, high-energy physics, quantum matter and nanoscale science.
- The research of the Solar and Stellar Physics Group is centred on using helioseismology and asteroseismology data to infer the structure and properties of solar-type stars and red giants (using Kepler and CoRoT data), and the application of results from asteroseismology to stellar population studies. The group has worldleading expertise in observational helioseismology from running the 6-station automated Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON), which has provided the international community with state-of-the-art data on low-degree modes of oscillation since the 1980s (a database that stretches back over three solar cycles).
- The group has led the way internationally in development and application of Sunas-a-star data analysis techniques (e.g., through its leadership of the solarFLAG collaboration, which comprises experts on Sun-as-a-star analysis from fifteen institutes). In addition, the group has established a leading position in asteroseismology, in large part through transfer of techniques and expertise from the Sun-as-a-star case to other stars.
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA)
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The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. The Solar and Stellar X-ray group (SSXG) at CfA is principally involved with instrumentation on many spacecraft including XRT on Hinode and AIA on SDO. In addition CfA/SSXG is the principle site outside of the SDO Joint Science Operations Center for the distribution of SDO data to the US and Europe. SSXG is also the principal institution responsible for the development of modules for the SDO automatic feature and event detection pipeline running at Lockheed Martin (LMSAL.)
National Solar Observatory (USA)
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The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is the national centre of the USA for groundbased solar research. The mission of NSO is to advance knowledge of the Sun by providing forefront observational opportunities to the solar and heliosphere research community. The mission includes the operation of cutting edge facilities, the continued development of advanced instrumentation both in-house and through partnerships, conducting solar research, and educational and public outreach.
