Scientists at Aberystwyth University have welcomed news that the European Solar Telescope (EST) has been granted Landmark status by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
The designation recognises the scientific importance of the EST project, progress towards its construction, and the role it is expected to play in Europe’s research infrastructure landscape.
The EST will be built at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Spain, with a 4.2-metre mirror and instruments to observe the Sun and its atmosphere. The work aims to improve understanding of solar activity and the effects of space weather on satellites, communications systems and power infrastructure on Earth.
The EST is being developed by institutions across Europe. Aberystwyth University is a member of the EST UK Universities Consortium, which supports the telescope’s development and future scientific programme. The consortium is led by the University of Sheffield and also includes Durham University, the University of Exeter, the University of Glasgow, Queen’s University Belfast, University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
Professor Huw Morgan, Professor of Solar Physics at Aberystwyth University, said: “The EST will offer exceptionally detailed measurements of the Sun’s hot atmosphere, allowing us to observe activity on scales that are beyond the reach of existing telescopes. The Space Physics group at Aberystwyth has a strong track record of advancing our understanding of the solar atmosphere, including the discovery several years ago of a magnetic field far stronger than had previously been expected.
“By revealing the Sun’s atmosphere in greater detail than ever before, EST will help answer one of the biggest questions in space physics: how the solar atmosphere is energised.
“These observations will also strengthen our space weather research and our collaboration with the UK Met Office. A better understanding of the solar atmosphere will improve our ability to predict major solar eruptions and flares, helping us better understand events that can affect technology and infrastructure here on Earth.”
The project is coordinated by the European Solar Telescope Foundation, with support from the Instituto de AstrofÃsica de Canarias and research partners across Europe.
Dr Manuel Collados, EST Coordinator, said: “EST is, by its very nature, a European project. No single institution or country could undertake an infrastructure of this scale and ambition alone. Its recognition as an ESFRI Landmark is therefore a recognition of the strength of the European partnership that has been built around the project. The task before us now is to turn that shared scientific ambition into the long-term commitments needed to bring EST into construction.”
Once operational, the EST will allow researchers to observe the solar atmosphere simultaneously at multiple heights and across different wavelengths.
