Aditya-L1 Catches First-Ever Images Proving Flare Energy Link Between Sun’s Layers

A solar flare observed by the Indian satellite Aditya-L1 has confirmed the linkage between flare energy deposition and associated temperature evolution, said the Indian Space Agency.

In other words, the solar flare observed by Aditya-L1 shows that the localised brightening captured in the lower solar atmosphere or lower part of the sun corresponds directly with the increase in the temperature of the plasma in the solar corona at the top of the solar atmosphere.

India’s Aditya-L1 Just Solved a Major Solar Mystery

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the finding offers new data to help reshape the understanding of the physics of solar flares and also validates the old theories.

One of the payloads in the Aditya-L2 satellite captured the first-ever image of a solar flare ‘kernel’ in the lower solar atmosphere, namely the photosphere and the chromosphere, in the images recorded in the Near Ultra-violet (NUV) band.

The Indian space agency said on 22 February 2024, one of the Aditya-L1 payloads, the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), observed an X6.3-class solar flare, which is one of the most intense categories of solar eruptions.

The unique feature of this observation was that SUIT detected brightening in the Near Ultra Violet (NUV) wavelength range (200-400 nm) — a wavelength range never observed before in much greater detail.

Aditya-L1 mission

Aditya-L1, India’s first dedicated space-based solar mission, was launched on 2 September 2023, by the country’s rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

On 6 January 2024, the spacecraft was successfully placed in a large halo orbit around the first Earth-Sun Lagrange Point, known as Lagrange Point L1. The special vantage point L1 allows the spacecraft to observe various solar activities without any eclipse and occultations continuously.

The Aditya-L1 satellite had payloads like Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), and High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS).

The payloads work together to detect and analyse solar flares from Near Ultra-violet (NUV) wavelength to soft and hard X-rays.

SUIT can capture high-resolution images in 11 different wave bands in NUV of the full solar disk or a specific region on the solar disk of scientific interest depending upon the scientific requirements, ISRO said.

As different radiations of different wavelengths leave the solar atmosphere from different heights/layers, it allows scientists to study multiple layers of the Sun’s atmosphere to study their coupling and dynamics.