Draft:IRSOL

Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò (IRSOL) is a research centre based in Switzerland that focuses on solar spectrum observations combined with polarimetry. Together with the Specola Solare Ticinese it collaborates in the dissemination activities of the Centro Astronomico del Locarnese (CAL).

History
The centre was originally built in 1960 by the University of Göttingen, Germany. In 1984, the Institute was taken over by Associazione Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (AIRSOL) after an agreement with the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Michele Bianda was entrusted with the direction. In 1987, the observatory was taken over by the Fondazione Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno (FIRSOL). Since 2015, IRSOL has been an associated research institute, and since 2021, it has been affiliated. with Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano. After Michele Bianda retired, Svetlana Berdyugina took over as director in 2022. In 2023, IRSOL and the Foundation took on the new name Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò (IRSOL). In 2000, the Institute was named after the asteroid 75569 IRSOL discovered by Stefano Sposetti

Research
IRSOL's research activities are primarily aimed at solar physics. The Locarno centre's objectives are to study the physical conditions in the Sun's atmosphere, with a special focus on its magnetism and the physical processes involved. By 2024, the fields of investigation are focused on four specific directions


 * theoretical modelling of polarised radiation in the solar atmosphere
 * solar magnetism and space weather
 * observations and instrumentation
 * MHD simulations of the solar and stellar atmospheres

Instrumentation
IRSOL has an Observatory equipped with a 45 cm aperture Gregory-Coudé telescope, together with instrumentation specific to the field of solar physics, such as Fabry-Pérot interference filters, ZIMPOL-3 (Zurich IMaging POLarimeter). ZIMPOL-3 is currently being perfected by IRSOL and SUPSI, following the initial development of the instrument by Jan Stenflo's group at ETH Zurich. The ZIMPOL-3 is capable of collecting the high-precision spectropolarimetric measurements on which the Locarno Institute focuses.