The Indian scientist studies the Sun’s atmosphere in close collaboration with the MPS.

• Award: The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award to Indian solar scientist Durgesh Kumar Tripathi.
• Collaboration: The award will enable the scientist to deepen his close and long-standing collaboration with the MPS. 
• Predictions: Among other things, Durgesh Tripathi investigates which processes trigger violent solar eruptions. 
• Solar mission: With the telescope SUIT, he contributes significantly to the Indian space probe Aditya-L1.

Although invisible to the naked eye, the Sun’s atmosphere is a place of extremes. Temperatures there reach up to one million degrees, and powerful, constantly shifting magnetic fields either trap the hot plasma or hurl it explosively into space. Such eruptions can be dangerous to Earth. If particles and radiation from the Sun spread towards our planet, this can disrupt terrestrial infrastructure such as satellites or power grids.

In order predict such events more accurately, it is necessary to examine the solar atmosphere closely. How do its unimaginably high temperatures arise? What changes in the interaction between the magnetic field and solar plasma precede the eruptions? And how do such eruptions unfold? Durgesh Tripathi is seeking to answer these questions at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India, where he heads one of the leading research groups in the field of solar research in India. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has now honoured him with the Humboldt Research Award. The award will enable the researcher to spend several months conducting research at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), allowing both institutions to intensify their collaboration.

Tripathi’s view of the Sun’s atmosphere is multifaceted: Using theoretical models, numerical simulations, and the analysis of observational data from space probes, the researcher has succeeded in gaining deep and novel insights. For example, Tripathi was able to demonstrate how tiny bursts of radiation in regions of particularly high magnetic field strength contribute to the heating of the Sun’s corona. His work also provides a deeper understanding of how rearrangements of magnetic field lines trigger and drive eruptions.

In addition, the Indian space probe Aditya-L1 offers him a unique view of the Sun. Based on an idea from the MPS, Tripathi and his research group developed and built the SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) instrument for the mission. SUIT images the Sun in the wavelength range between 200 and 400 nanometres, thereby opening a new window into the lower atmosphere of the entire Sun.

Durgesh Kumar Tripathi studied Physics at Gorakhpur University in India. His doctoral work already laid the foundation for his close connection to the MPS. There, as part of the International Max Planck Research School, he completed his doctoral thesis on coronal mass ejections from the Sun. He subsequently conducted research for about six years at the University of Cambridge, including a short stint at University College London and spent research stays in Boulder (USA) and Kyoto (Japan). After returning to India, he led a Max Planck Partner Group at the MPS from 2014 to 2021. Since 2011, Durgesh Tripathi has been a professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India, where he has established one of the country’s leading research groups in solar physics.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards the Humboldt Research Prize annually to outstanding international researchers, with the aim of deepening their collaboration with German research institutions. Among other things, the prize money enables the laureates to undertake a research stay of up to 12 months in Germany. At today’s Award Ceremony during the Foundation’s Annual Meeting in Berlin 55 laureates were honored.