Scientist Urges 24-Hour Solar Monitoring for Aditya-L1 Mission to Detect CMEs

As the Aditya-L1 mission prepares for launch on Saturday morning, Dr. R Ramesh from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics highlights the importance of uninterrupted solar observation. Continuous monitoring is essential due to the potential disruption caused by solar quakes, also known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), to Earth’s systems.

1. Ahead of the Aditya-L1 solar journey, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) researcher Dr R Ramesh emphasizes the need to observe the Sun continuously for 24 hours to study solar quakes that can affect Earth’s geomagnetic fields. .

2. The Aditya-L1 mission, dedicated to exploring the sun, is scheduled to lift off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Saturday at 11:50 am.

3. Dr. Ramesh compares solar quakes, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), to earthquakes. CMEs involve the ejection of massive amounts of solar material into interplanetary space.

4. Some CMEs can travel at speeds of about 3,000 km per second, and in some cases may be directed toward Earth, reaching Near-Earth space in about 15 hours.

5. The Aditya-L1 mission offers the unique advantage of allowing the observation of the solar corona from a vantage point close to its origin and the study of changes in the magnetic field of the solar atmosphere that trigger CMEs or solar earthquakes.

6. CMEs are a threat to satellites because they can disrupt the ship’s electronics and even lead to blackouts on Earth. Such disruptions include the 1989 blackout in Quebec, Canada, and the 2017 impact on Zurich Airport in Switzerland.

7. When CMEs reach Earth, they interact with the planet’s geomagnetic field, potentially affecting high-voltage transformers, making continuous solar monitoring critical.

8. Aditya-L1’s location at the Lagrange-1 (L1) point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth between the Sun and Earth, allows for uninterrupted solar observation.

9. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), with a history of 125 years in the field of solar observation, recognizes the importance of 24-hour solar tracking, which is challenging for Earth due to daylight limitations and atmospheric disturbances.

10. Earth-based telescopes can only observe the Sun in daylight, and dust particles in the atmosphere can obscure observations.

11. To overcome these limitations, the IIA sought to establish a space-based telescope for continuous solar observation.

12. The L1 point offers an unobstructed view of the Sun and the Aditya-L1 flyby will take more than 100 days to reach this strategic location. Collected information is submitted to IIA’s Payload Operations Center for analysis and dissemination.