Scientists in India have reported the “first significant result” from Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar observation mission in space.
Studying CMEs – massive fireballs that blow out of the Sun’s outermost corona layer – is one of the most important scientific objectives of India’s maiden solar mission.
As it was too far away, it did not impact Earth’s weather.” But solar storms, solar flares and coronal mass ejections routinely impact Earth’s weather.
A stronger coronal mass ejection can cause auroras to show up in skies further away such as in London or France – as it did in May and October.
From its vantage point in space, Aditya-L1 is able to watch the Sun constantly, even during eclipses and occultations, and carry out scientific studies.
Indian scientists have announced the “first significant result” from Aditya-L1, the nation’s first space-based solar observation mission.
The new knowledge, they said, could help prevent communication satellites and power grids from being in danger the next time solar activity poses a threat to space and terrestrial infrastructure.
Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc, the most significant of the seven scientific instruments Aditya-L1 is carrying, recorded data on July 16 that assisted researchers in pinpointing the exact moment a coronal mass ejection (CME) started.
One of the primary scientific goals of India’s first solar mission is to investigate CMEs, which are enormous fireballs that emerge from the Sun’s outermost corona layer.
Made of energy particles, a CME can travel up to 3,000 kilometers [1,864 miles] per second and weigh up to a trillion kilograms. Prof. R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which created Velc, states that it can travel in any direction, including Earth’s direction.
Now picture this enormous ball of fire rushing toward Earth. The 150 million km Earth-Sun distance could be completed in roughly 15 hours at its fastest speed. “”.
Velc recorded the coronal ejection on July 16th, and it began at 13:08 GMT. According to Prof. Ramesh, Velc’s Principal Investigator, who wrote a paper about this CME for the esteemed Astrophysical Journal Letters, it began on Earth’s surface.
However, it was deflected and changed course, passing behind the Sun, within 30 minutes of its journey. It didn’t affect Earth’s weather because it was too far away. “.”.
But the weather on Earth is frequently affected by solar storms, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. In the space weather where almost 7,800 satellites are positioned, including over 50 from India, they also have an effect.
They rarely directly endanger human life, but they can wreak havoc on Earth by disrupting the magnetic field, according to Space Dot Com.
In locations near the North and South Poles, they have the most benign effect of producing stunning auroras. Auroras can appear in farther-off places like London or France, as they did in May and October, when a stronger coronal mass ejection occurs.
However, in space, where the charged particles from a coronal mass ejection can cause all of a satellite’s electronics to malfunction, the impact is far more severe. They have the ability to disrupt power systems and interfere with communication and weather satellites.
Our lives now rely entirely on communication satellites, and CMEs have the ability to disrupt radio, phone, and internet communication, according to Prof. Ramesh. It may result in complete chaos. “”.
In 1859, the strongest solar storm ever observed took place. It was known as the Carrington Event, and it caused brilliant auroral light displays and the global outage of telegraph lines.
NASA scientists say we had “a close shave just as perilous” in 2012 when an equally powerful storm was headed for Earth. They claim that on July 23, a strong coronal mass ejection ripped through Earth’s orbit, but that we were “incredibly fortunate” that the storm cloud struck NASA’s solar observatory STEREO-A in space rather than our planet.
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Six million Quebecers were left without electricity in 1989 after a coronal mass ejection shut down a portion of the province’s electrical grid for nine hours.
Additionally, on November 4, 2015, solar activity caused air traffic control to be disrupted at airports in Sweden and several other European countries, resulting in hours of travel chaos.
A solar storm or a coronal mass ejection can serve as a warning to turn off power grids and satellites and keep them safe if we can see what happens on the Sun, observe its trajectory, and detect it in real time, according to scientists.
China, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the US space agency NASA have been using space-based solar missions to observe the Sun for decades. Earlier this year, the Indian space agency Isro became a member of that exclusive group with Aditya-L1, which is named after the Hindu god of the Sun.
Aditya-L1’s position in space allows it to conduct scientific research and observe the Sun continuously, even during occultations and eclipses.
According to Prof. Ramesh, when we gaze at the Sun from Earth, we see an orange ball of fire that is the photosphere, which is the star’s brightest region or surface.
The solar corona, the outermost layer of the Sun, is only visible during a total eclipse, when the Moon moves between Earth and the Sun and obscures the photosphere.
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According to Prof. Ramesh, India’s coronagraph has a small edge over the coronagraph at the joint Solar and Heliospheric Observatory of NASA and ESA.
Ours is large enough to simulate the Moon’s function and cover up the Sun’s photosphere, giving Aditya-L1 a continuous view of the corona year-round. “.”.
He claims that because the coronagraph on the NASA-ESA mission is larger, it obscures elements of the corona in addition to the photosphere, making it impossible to detect the genesis of a CME if it starts in the hidden area.
However, we can accurately predict when a coronal mass ejection starts and where it is going with Velc. “.”.
Additionally, India has three ground-based observatories to observe the Sun: Kodaikanal, Gauribidanur in the south, and Udaipur in the northwest. He goes on to say that we can significantly increase our comprehension of the Sun if we combine their findings with those of Aditya-L1.
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