| Established | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Research type | basic |
Field of research | Solar Physics |
| Directors | Valentín Martínez Pillet |
| Staff | around 150 |
| Address | 3665 Discovery Drive, 3rd Floor, Boulder, CO, 80303, US |
| Location | Boulder, Colorado, US 40°00′42″N 105°14′44″W / 40.0117201°N 105.2454644°W |
Sponsoring agency | National Science Foundation |
| Affiliations | University of Colorado Boulder |
Operating agency | Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy |
| Website | www |
The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a United States federally funded research and development center to advance the knowledge of the physics of the Sun. NSO studies the Sun both as an astronomical object and as the dominant external influence on Earth. NSO is headquartered in Boulder and operates facilities at a number of locations – at the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui, at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot in New Mexico, and six sites around the world for the Global Oscillations Network Group one of which is shared with the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun.
NSO provides its observations to the scientific community. It operates facilities, develops advanced instrumentation both in-house and through partnerships, conducts solar research, and carries out educational and public outreach.