ISRO Aditya-L1 is India’s most memorable sun-based mission committed to the extensive investigation of the Sun. It was sent off on September 2, 2023.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shared the first full-disk images of the Sun taken by the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) instrument on board the Aditya-L1 spacecraft.
The Indian space agency said that the instrument used various scientific filters to capture the sun’s photosphere and chromosphere in this wavelength range.
Source- ISRO
Aditya L1 will be the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without any occultation or eclipse. This will provide the greater advantage of observing solar activities and their effect on space weather in real time. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and outermost layers of the sun (the corona) using electromagnetic, particle, and magnetic field detectors. Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads directly view the sun, and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium
The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial informations to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields, etc.
Science Objectives:
The major science objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission are:
Study of solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
Study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionised plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections, and flares
Observe the in-situ particle and plasma environments, providing data for the study of particle dynamics from the Sun.
The physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism.
Diagnostics of the coronal and coronal loop plasma: temperature, velocity, and density.
The development, dynamics, and origin of CMEs.
Identify the sequence of processes that occur at multiple layers (chromosphere, base, and extended corona), which eventually lead to solar eruptive events.
Magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona.
Drivers for space weather (origin, composition, and dynamics of solar wind).
“On November 20, 2023, the SUIT payload was powered on. Following a successful pre-commissioning phase, the telescope captured its first light science images on December 6, 2023. These unprecedented images, taken using eleven different filters (as shown in Table 1), include the first-ever full-disk representations of the sun in wavelengths ranging from 200 to 400 nm, excluding Ca II h. The full disc images of the sun in the Ca II h wavelength have been studied from other observatories,” read a statement by ISRO.
The SUIT instrument captured sunspots, plages, and quiet sun regions, as marked in the Mg II h image. It provided scientists with pioneering insights into the intricate details of the sun’s photosphere and chromosphere, the ISRO statement read.
These observations will further help the ISRO scientists to study the dynamic coupling of the magnetised solar atmosphere and will also assist them in placing tight constraints on the effects of solar radiation on Earth’s climate.
Under the leadership of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, a cooperative effort was made to develop the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) instrument. Among other agencies or institutions involved were ISRO, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), the Centre for Excellence in Space Science Indian (CESSI) at IISER-Kolkata, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bengaluru, the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO-PRL), and Tezpur University Assam.
Aditya L1 was successfully launched on September 2. It is India’s first solar mission dedicated to the comprehensive study of the Sun. Aditya L1 is situated in a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, roughly 15 lakh km from Earth. Among its various unique advantages are uninterrupted, continuous observation of the sun, real-time monitoring of solar activity, and its impact on space weather.