MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 41 4.1 ScienceHighlights 4.1.1 The Sun Solar physics has been one of the longest pursued research disciplines in the country. Several groups in the country are engaged in the observations of and modelling the Sun and its activity. The aspects of study range from solar structure, solar atmosphere, helioseismology, study of the magnetic field to its effect on solar activity and its impact on space weather, etc. Considerable work was also done on the solar neutrino problem that was finally resolved about two decades ago. Magneto-convective processes in the photosphere and sub-photospheric layers of the Sun cause structuring of the magnetic field over a broad range of scales leading to flux concentrations. These dynamically important flux concentrations that occur at all layers of the solar atmosphere are responsible for almost all activity on the Sun, including heating of the upper atmospheric layers and the various eruptive phenomenon that drive the space weather. Researchers in the country utilise the various multi-wavelength data available through ground and space based observatories, both within the country and international in the studies of such phenomenon, that also includes detailed theoretical modelling. Long-term solar observations (at low resolution) have been carried out systematically at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KSO, IIA), the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO, PRL) and ARIES. Daily photographic images of the Sun in white light continuum, CaII K emission and in H (in the form of spectroheliograms) have been obtained from the KSO since 1905. Since the late 1980s the photographic plate records have been upgraded to digital CCD records. The 100-year old photographic data have all been digitised and are made available for use through the KSO Digitized Data Archival System. These data are being used by both national and international solar astronomers for long term studies of solar activity. Ground based radio telescopes at Ooty (TIFR) and Gauribidanur (IIA) have focused on characterizing the solar corona, solar wind and interplanetary perturbations during propagation of solar storms. Ground based magnetometer networks operated by the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) networks and ionospheric field stations located at various parts of India have been involved in characterizing the state of the ionosphere and geomagnetic storms in response to solar forcing. In the context of translational space weather prediction research, development of indigenous computational models for forecasting the solar system space environment and data analytics-based space weather forecasts (utilizingArtificial Intelligence andMachine Learning based approaches) are still in nascent stages. The multi-institutional Center for Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) located at IISER-Kolkata has focused recently on translational space weather research and has been successful in developing indigenous computational approaches for space weather forecasting. 4.1.2 Solar SystemObjects Photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric observations of comets have been the main areas of research in the studies of solar system objects. These include the study of the impact plume of NASA's Deep Impact probe on the comet Tempel-1, based on which the effects of sublimation and diffusion in comets were inferred. Based on imaging and spectroscopic observations in the optical and infrared, the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov was shown to have a α MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035