Udaipur Solar Observatory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) is located in the historic city of Udaipur, Rajasthan in India on an island in the Fatehsagar lake. The observatory is among the few in the world that are situated on an island. The sky conditions at Udaipur are quite favourable for solar observations. Since the observatory is situated amidst a large mass of water, air turbulence which occurs due to ground heating by sun's rays is decreased. This improves the image quality and accuracy (average between 1-2 arc seconds). The observatory was built in the year 1976 by Dr. Arvind Bhatanagar following the model of the Solar Observatory at Big Bear lake in Southern California. Later, he was joined by Dr. Ashok Ambastha in 1983 and subsequently by several others who have contributed to its development to a world class solar observatory.
Utilizing a variety of telescopes, USO is known for its high quality solar observations, which include high-resolution solar chromospheric, magnetic field, velocity, and spectral observations, for studies pertaining to solar flares, mass ejections, and the evolution of solar active regions. USO also fills the large longitudinal gap between Australia and Spain, and provides a link for continuous solar coverage in many international collaborative programs, including the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG). Since 1981, USO has been managed by the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, for the Department of Space, Government of India.
The city of Udaipur was planned around a set of man-made lakes created from rain water. However with population pressure and with poor rainfall, the water in these lakes has been steadily dwindling. In 1975, Fathesagar flooded its adjoining neighborhoods; In 2003, it was completely dry, and one could walk to the USO (see photo). As of 2006, the lake is full again and you need to take a boat to go to the observatory.
