Srinagar, Jan 6: The world’s large solar telescope will be set up at Pangong Tso Lake in mountainous Ladakh region of Indian administered Kashmir.
“Kashmir will have the distinction of having the world’s largest solar telescope in Ladakh region. The government will extend full cooperation to the Indian government in its endeavour to set up India’s National large solar telescope (NLST) at Pangong Tso Lake Merak in Ladakh region. The facility will also provide employment opportunities to the local population in the area,” Kashmir’s Chief Secretary Madhav Lal said.
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An official said the site was selected after carefully studying various scientific and environmental aspects. “It emerged from the studies that the Pangong lake site at Merak was very promising and offered longer sunshine hours,” he said.
He said the site, selected for setting up the of world’s largest solar telescope fitted with a 2m reflector will permit scientists to carry out cutting edge research to understand the fundamental processes taking place on the sun. “The solar telescope will help the scientific community to study the long term changes in earth’s climate and environment and also provide useful data to carry out research in order to minimize or remove disruptions to communications network and satellites due to periodic solar winds,” he said.
