ISF – Institute for Solar physics

Research within solar physics focuses on understanding the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, which is important for astrophysics as well as for a long list of other research areas, such as geophysics, climate research, space physics and biology. Research within solar physics requires access to either ground-based telescopes or space probes and satellites.

The solar telescope with the greatest resolution is currently the ground-based Swedish solar telescope SST. SST is located on La Palma in the Canary Islands, and is operated by the Institute for Solar Physics (ISF), a national infrastructure hosted by Stockholm University. SST is expected to retain its world-leading position until the next generation telescope becomes operational, which is the planned European solar telescope EST and its US equivalent DKIST.