Director, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/solar-tsunami-can-trigger-the-sunspot-cycle/article26556218.ece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxQxlM1EB68
JUL 11, 2016 - UPLOADED BY RAJYA SABHA TV
Anchor: T V Venkateswaran
It will try to figure out why the outermost layer of the Sun is a million degrees hot among other things.
by Promote Science
The scientific payloads are being designed and made by different teams from various Indian Institutes viz. IIA Bangalore, IUCAA Pune, PRL Ahmedabad, VSSC Thiruvananthapuram, ISAC Bangalore and LEOS Bangalore.
https://youtu.be/L7h_t5Y6SaQ
JAIPUR, FEBRUARY 19, 2018 22:48 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/physicists-gather-to-analyse-solar-cycles/article22800667.ece
Symposium gives new impetus to study of long-term data sets from Kodaikanal Observatory
Referring to an earlier conference, Dipankar Banerjee of IIAP, the host institute, said, "We are in the early days of this cross-calibration of various data sets. The Kodaikanal image set is special because it not only has long term data, but there are three different types of images that overlap with other data sets."
NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 5
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/a-four-day-meet-on-astronomy-begins-at-hyderabad-on-february-6/article22660067.ece
About 400 astronomers are gathering at Hyderabad for a stimulating four-day discussion on a range of topics in astronomy being organised by the Astronomical Society of India beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, February 6 at Osmania University in the southern metropolitan city.
Addressing a press conference, Prof. Dipankar Banerjee Secretary, Astronomical Society of India, said many interesting results are expected to be presented in the next four days including results from AstoSAT, India's first space multi-wavelength telescope.
CHENNAI, NOVEMBER 26, 2017
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/here-comes-the-sun-watcher-indias-aditya-l1/article20942099.ece
"The nominal mission lifetime is expected to be five years, though it is expected to go on for much longer, perhaps even ten," says Dipankar Banerjee from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP), Bengaluru, which is collaborating with ISRO on this project.
"Studying coronal mass ejections [a phenomenon that would correlate with high sunspot activity] is not the only objective. This study can also help us understand the coronal heating problem," says Prof. Banerjee. The 'coronal heating problem' refers to the fact that the photosphere, a deeper layer of the sun, is at a much lower temperature than the outer layer, the corona. Since it is believed that the heating process happens from within, what causes this heating of the outer layer, the corona, remains a mystery. Observations by Aditya-L1 of the magnetic fields bubbling out of the photosphere into the corona will help shed light on this.
CHENNAI, MAY 06, 2017
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/100-years-with-our-closest-star-the-sun/article18400934.ece
Indian Institute of Astrophysics releases digitised images of the sun for researchers and science enthusiasts "From that knowledge we may understand the current and future events with greater precision. This also allows us to predict future [sunspot] activity levels with better accuracy," says Dipankar Banerjee, IIAP, the Principal Investigator.
http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/iia-is-reaching-for-the-sun-with-new-projects/articleshow/58688641.cms
City's Indian Institute of Astrophysics is involved in two significant space projects "The NLST is going to be India's future ground-based solar facility which will enable solar scientists to understand solar dynamics with better precision. Aditya - L1 is a space mission primarily looking at outer atmosphere of the sun whereas the NLST will provide crucial information from the lower atmosphere of the sun. A combination of information from these projects will bridge the understanding of the entire solar atmosphere," said ProfDipankar Banerjee, project coordinator, NLST.
"The telescope will help in studying the variations in the Sun. We need to understand the variations in the solar output as our very existence depends upon the sun. After all the energy comes from the sun," said Banerjee who is also the co-principal investigator of Aditya-L1.
T V Venkateswaran Wednesday 23 August 2017
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/indian-prediction-on-solar-corona-proves-right-58524
The relative success of the model has implications the solar observatory, Aditya-L1, to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It will include Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) instrument designed and developed by Dipankar Banerjee of Indian Institute of Astrophysics. It artificially creates a total solar eclipse in space by blocking emissions coming from the solar disk, revealing otherwise invisible corona. "The work by Nandi's team will let us directly compare observed images with these models and help us understand the corona better" said Banerjee.
BY SARAH IQBAL ON 25/10/2017
https://thewire.in/190534/coronal-heating-problem-solar-flares-nanoflares-parker-aditya-jaxa/
The temperature of the Sun's surface is 5500o C. But the solar corona, which lies about 2,000 km above the surface, rages at a few million degrees celsius. We don't know why.
One reason for this could be the scale of the explosions. Nanoflares are minuscule in terms of their strength, about a billion-times weaker than the flares that disrupt satellite communications around Earth. "Such small disturbances are rarely picked up by the current gamut of tools deployed in space," Dipankar Banerjee, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, told The Wire. "Detecting such faint traces of heat across a vast background of cooler and brighter emission is not easy."
Written by Anuradha Mascarenhas | Pune | Published: August 23, 2017
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/iiser-groups-predictions-on-suns-corona-find-qualitative-match-in-image-4809486/
"The qualitative match between the predicted and observed image is quite satisfactory," Dipankar Banerjee, Chair of the Science Group on Visible Emission Line Coronograph (VELC), the main payload on Aditya-L1 mission, told The Indian Express.
The News Minute-08-Feb-2016
We ask an expert at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics what the alien material could be. ... Dipankar Banerjee, a professor from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, says that the chances of it being a meteorite were dim and that it could just be space debris, or part of a broken satellite that managed to enter
NOVEMBER 15, 2015
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/the-sun-shines-on-indias-aditya/article7878625.ece
India's solar mission will study the Sun's outermost layers - the corona and the chromosphere - and collect data about coronal mass ejection
Among the suite of instruments in the payload would be a solar coronagraph. "A combination of imaging and spectroscopy in multi-wavelength will enhance our understanding of the solar atmosphere. It will provide high time cadence sharp images of the solar chromosphere and the corona in the emission lines. These images will be used to study the highly dynamic nature of the solar corona including the small-scale coronal loops and large-scale Coronal Mass Ejections," said Dipankar Banerjee, physicist from IIA, who is part of this project.
Nazir Ganaie May 20, 2016
http://www.firstpost.com/india/pangong-lake-in-ladakh-to-host-worlds-largest-solar-telescope-2792008.html
Giving details of the over Rs 500-crore project, Prof Dipankar Banerjee of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics, who works on the project, said that site evaluation for the telescope has been scientifically carried out. He said that site evaluation showed 50 percent of the clear time the perceptible water vapour content with 5mm over several hours during periods with good seeing condition. He also informed that evaluation of aerosol concentration and size distribution and its seasonal variation to look for low levels of dust and high sky transparency.
July 12, 2017
https://www.thebetterindia.com/107884/aditya-l1-maiden-indian-space-mission-study-sun/
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology