Solar tower (astronomy)

A solar tower, in the context of astronomy, is a structure used to support equipment for studying the sun, and is typically part of solar telescope designs. Generically, the term solar tower has many more uses especially for a type of power production using Earth's Sun. Solar tower observatories are also called vacuum tower telescopes.

Solar towers are used to raise the observation equipment above the atmospheric disturbances caused by solar heating of the ground and the radiation of the heat into the atmosphere. Traditional observatories do not have to be placed high above ground level, as they do most of their observation at night, when ground radiation is at a minimum.

The horizontal Snow solar observatory was built on Mount Wilson in 1904. It was soon found that heat radiation was disrupting observations. Almost as soon as the Snow Observatory opened, plans were started for a 60-foot-tall (18 m) tower that opened in 1908 followed by a 150-foot (46 m) tower in 1912. The 60-foot (18 m) tower is currently used to study helioseismology, while the 150-foot (46 m) tower is active in UCLA's Solar Cycle Program.

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (国立天文台, kokuritsu tenmondai) (NAOJ) is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations - the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of the University of Tokyo, International Latitude Observatory of Mizusawa, and a part of Research Institute of Atmospherics of Nagoya University.

In the 2004 reform of national research organizations, NAOJ became a division of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences.

Facilities

Norikura Solar Observatory (Mt. Norikura, Nagano, 36°07′01″N 137°33′09″E / 36.116925°N 137.552528°E / 36.116925; 137.552528), formerly under NAOJ, was decommissioned in 2010 and its building is reused for researches including non-astronomical area under administration of National Institute of Natural Sciences.

NINS

In 2004, NAOJ, in alliance with four other national institutes – the National Institute for Basic Biology, the National Institute for Fusion Science, the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, and the Institute for Molecular Science – established the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) to promote collaboration among researchers of the five constituent institutes.