ISRO's Aditya-L1 captures solar fury

ISRO's Aditya-L1 spacecraft has captured recent solar activity using its two onboard remote sensing instruments, the space agency announced on Monday.

 

India's inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1, reached the Lagrangian point (L1) on January 6 this year, 127 days after its launch on September 2, 2023. Located approximately 1.5 million km from Earth, L1 allows the spacecraft to continuously observe the Sun.

 

The Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) recorded the Sun's dynamic activities in May 2024, ISRO said in a statement.

 

"Several X-class and M-class flares, associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), leading to significant geomagnetic storms, were recorded," the statement read.

 

The Sun's Active Region AR13664 erupted several X-class and M-class flares during the week of May 8-15, which were associated with CMEs on May 8 and 9. These events resulted in a major geomagnetic storm on May 11, ISRO noted.

 

ISRO released images of the Sun taken by the SUIT payload on May 17, along with details of the observations made by VELC.