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It took exactly two years after instrument commissioning to finally get 1st- and 2nd-light at the very same day with Callisto at IRSOL.
Obviously, the Sun started to get active in terms of radio radiation at decametre wavelength (here 45-70 MHz).
Following the NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center classification, the instrument observed twice a small group of type III bursts.
Type III radio bursts are a group of fast drifting radio emissions associated with solar flares. These radio emissions are believed to be excited at the fundamental and second harmonic of the electron plasma frequency.
Solar type III radio bursts are an important diagnostic tool in the understanding of solar accelerated electron beams.
They are a signature of propagating beams of non-thermal electrons in the solar atmosphere and the solar system.
Consequently, they provide information on electron acceleration and transport, and the conditions of the background ambient plasma they travel through.

Christian Monstein

This is a great moment for solar physics. The National Solar Observatory (NSO) just published the first light images obtained with DKIST: the new largest telescope in the world.

The first images show the granular structures with many details and with unprecedented resolution. DKIST observations are expected to provide a large amount of new interesting information about solar phenomena.

IRSOL collaborates with the Leibniz-Institut for Solar Physics (KIS) in Freiburg on the construction of the Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) to be installed at DKIST. This will allow to obtain spectro-polarimetric with unprecedented resolution, allowing scientists to study in detail the solar magnetic field, responsible of solar activity and transient solar events.

DKIST observations will provide an important opportunity to test the numerical and the theoretical  models developed by IRSOL researchers in collaboration with the Institute of Computational Science at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and the  Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS).

IRSOL staff congratulates with NSO colleagues for this important and successful achievement.

For more information:
https://www.nso.edu/inouye-solar-telescope-first-light

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IRSOL, together with the Institute of Computational Science of the Università della Svizzera italiana, organized the SOLARNET-FoMICS summer school “Solar spectropolarimetry: From virtual to real observations”, which took place from Sept. 9-14 2019 at USI in Lugano. This was the first of a series schools of the SOLARNET program of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme sponsored under Grant Agreement No 824135. The school was cosponsored by the Swiss Graduate Programme “Foundations in Mathematics and Informatics for Computer Simulations in Science and Engineering” (FoMICS).

25 students, 6 female and 19 male, from 8 countries participated in this course. Seven of these 25 were participants from IRSOL. Six participants had a doctoral degree, 15 were PhD students, and four were about to start a PhD.

The course included to a great deal hands-on exercises with radiative transfer computer programs. Students brought their own laptop along with them and had all downloaded the virtual box corresponding to their OS prior to the start of the school. They received from us a 64 GB SanDisk USB stick containing the OS for the virtual machine (Salix) and the programs and data and presentations copied on it.

Lecturers were Dr. Juan Manuel Borrero from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics from Freiburg (D) on the basics of polarized light and the transfer equation for polarized radiation and with hands-on sessions where students compiled and ran the SIR radiative transfer code. Dr. Oskar Steiner from IRSOL lectured on the numerics and tools available for the production of simulation data, while Drs. Flavio Calvo (Univ Stockholm) and Adur Pastor Yabar (Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics) lectured on data formats and visualization of simulation data and access and handling of observational data. Dr. Renzo Rameli from IRSOL gave a lecture on high-precision polarimetry with ZIMPOL. Dr. Jaime de la Cruz Rodriguez (Univ. Stockholm) explained the basics of radiative transfer in the regime out of thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE). Students compiled and ran the STiC code for computing Stokes profiles under NLTE conditions. Prof. Rolf Krause of USI delivered a “supplementary skills lecture” about career development planing.

The school included a visit to IRSOL and to the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS), where Dr. Matthias Kraushaar (CSCS) introduced to high performance computing. The last day of the school, Saturday, offered an optional excursion to Monte San Salvatore with hike to Morcote.