Abstract

Identification of Fraunhofer lines with the known atomic and molecular absorbers and predictions leading to such efforts have been a challenging area of study crowned with occasional success. Such studies have also lead to (i) a determination of abundances of elements and their isotopes, (ii) valuable information on model atmospheres and (iii) use of Sun as a laboratory source to determine such atomic and molecular parameters as the oscillator strengths. We summarize and review here the work done in the last four and a half decades in the area of solar spectroscopy at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciencES (ARIES in short) with a view to pick up new and interesting areas for future investigations in the light of tremendous progress made elsewhere in observations of the sun and in the laboratory studies.