India’s ambitious solar mission, Aditya-L1, has successfully reached its final destination, marking a significant milestone in the nation’s space exploration efforts. Aditya-L1 was launched with the aim of studying the Sun. It carries seven cutting-edge scientific instruments, with the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (Velc) being the most important of them all. This mission aims to enhance our understanding of solar phenomena. It aims in particular measure to the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs something that has the potential to significantly disrupt life on Earth.
With its nearly million-kilometer orbit, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft is uniquely placed to monitor the Sun’s activity at all times. Its primary objective is to provide insights into CMEs, massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space. These phenomena can generate severe geomagnetic storms that knock out power grids and affect airplane and satellite communication on Earth.
Prof Ramesh, principal investigator of Velc, called the mission’s importance to advance the field. Its purpose is to protect people and property from these dangers created by solar activity. The primary learnings from this will assist us in figuring out what countermeasures should be adopted to protect our satellites operating in near space. They will enable us to better understand the space environment near-Earth,” he said.
Aditya-L1 will be playing a crucial role in understanding coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It will observe their frequency and intensity especially during the Sun’s peak activity cycle. At times of increased solar activity, the Sun often sends out two to three CMEs per day. Prof Ramesh observed, “We think the CME we studied happened when the Sun had its expected level of activity. This serves as the baseline against which we will be judging our evaluation. We’ll be using it to better understand what occurs during the peak activity cycle.
The coronagraph on Aditya-L1 represents the size of the Moon. This novel design will allow it to completely obscure the Sun’s photosphere, allowing direct observations of the Solar corona on a continuous basis. This is an important capability for capturing uninterrupted data of the Sun’s activities, as we are prone to lose in eclipses or occultations. Prof Ramesh elaborated on this feature, saying, “Aditya-L1’s coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun’s photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations.”
Aditya-L1’s mission is underscored by the fact that CMEs can have severe effects on satellite operations and terrestrial infrastructure. “They can make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites,” Prof Ramesh cautioned.
As it orbits, Aditya-L1 has already done something amazing, recording one of the largest coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on record. This tremendous underground explosion released the equivalent energy of 2.2 million megatons of TNT. At the CME’s point of origin, the temperature spiked to an incredible 1.8 million degrees Celsius. This amazing heat illustrates not only the strength but the majesty of solar phenomena.
Aditya-L1 has taken off on its historic mission with a determined smile. It is designed to provide key information that will enable the scientific community to reveal the Sun’s activity and how it may impact Earth. Understanding CMEs is vital to operations forewarning systems. These systems shield our power grids and satellites from dangerous solar storm activities.