Solaris, the solar observatory in Antarctica with its mind in Sardinia

A new Italian telescope observes the Sun from Antarctica, it is called Solaris and has its origin in Sardinia.

Solaris is an innovative instrument for observing the Sun, which collects information about our star, observing it in radio waves. At a frequency of 95 GHz, the Sun shows its hidden side, that of the chromosphere, where flares and coronal mass ejections form. The chromosphere is where geomagnetic storms are born, which, hitting the Earth, cause auroras and interruptions in satellite communications and electrical networks.

"The ability to monitor, understand and predict the changing solar phenomenology and its significant impact on the space environment and our planet is a challenge that is becoming increasingly important," says Alberto Pellizzoni, astrophysicist at INAF and scientific director of the Solaris project. Solaris observes the Sun from the Italian base "Mario Zucchelli", in Terranova Bay in Antarctica, and has filmed the geomagnetic storm of New Year's Eve, the one that caused the aurora also seen in Sardinia. "Important" footage, as astrophysicist Pellizzoni defined it, which is now being analyzed and studied by a team of researchers.

But the idea for this new instrument was born in Sardinia. Pointing at the Sun in a test session of the Sardinia Radio Telescope, it was realized that new information on solar flares could be collected in radio waves. Since then, Solaris has had its operational center in Sardinia, and is the result of a collaboration between several national scientific institutions coordinated by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the University of Milan and the University of Milan-Bicocca within the PNRA (National Plan for Research in Antarctica).