Aditya-L1 Satellite to Capture 1,440 Solar Images Every Day

India’s revolutionary solar mission, Aditya-L1, is scheduled to launch on September 2. The mission will utilize the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) as its primary instrument, which aims to capture a multitude of solar images on a daily basis. These images will greatly enhance our comprehension of the Sun’s corona and its activities.

1. The Aditya-L1 mission, India’s first solar mission, is scheduled to launch on September 2 after the recent success of Chandrayaan-3.

2. The mission’s primary payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), will transmit 1,440 images daily to ground stations for analysis once it reaches its planned orbit.

3. Considered Aditya-L1’s most significant and technically challenging payload, VELC was developed and calibrated in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) at their CREST campus in Hoskote, near Bengaluru.

4. The Aditya-L1 mission will be launched on a PSLV-C57 rocket on September 2 at 11:50 am.

5. The mission is equipped with seven payloads, four of which are designed to observe light from the Sun and three dedicated to in situ measurements of plasma and magnetic fields.

6. Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian point 1 (L1) located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction of the Sun, ensuring continuous observation of the sun without eclipses.

7. VELC’s imaging channel produces one image per minute, a total of approximately 1,440 images during 24 hours.

8. IIA hosts the VELC Payload Operations Center (POC), which receives raw data from ISRO’s Indian Space Science Data Center (ISSDC) for further processing and scientific analysis prior to dissemination.

9. Special software developed by IIA automatically detects coronal mass ejections and delivers timely information to the scientific community within 24 hours.

10. The VELC payload, which weighs 190 kg, is expected to transmit images for the satellite’s nominal five-year lifetime, with the possibility of further travel depending on fuel consumption.

11. VELC contains four channels, of which the continuum channel independently transmits 1,440 images per day, while the other spectroscopy channels provide images as needed.

12. The first images of Aditya-L1 are expected to be available by the end of February. The satellite will be placed into orbit in mid-January, after which it will be tested and the device activated.