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

Astronomy & Astrophysics 77 Figure 11: Artistic impressions of National Large Optical-IR Telescope (left) and National Large Solar Telescope (right). 5.3.1 National Large SolarTelescope The Indian solar physics community has envisioned the National Large Solar Telescope, hereafter NLST, as its flagship ground-based facility to observe the Sun at very high resolution. This state-of- the-art facility (comparable to the best in the world) will uniquely position the Indian solar community to tackle several outstanding questions in solar physics and will put India at the forefront of exciting developments is this field. The NLSTwill be a 2-meter class telescope, whose innovative design, large collecting area, diffraction limited observations and post focus instruments are aimed at revealing the fundamental nature of magnetic fields in the atmosphere of the Sun. Given that solar observations are possible only during day time from a given location, near-continuous observations for capturing dynamic and transient solar phenomena necessitates placement of solar observatories at different longitudes. This is especially important given the need to constrain the solar sources of space weather phenomena that 5.3 Mega Science Projects in Planning Stages in the Country MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035