Scientists in India have reported the “first significant result ” from Aditya-L1 the country fast solar observation mission in space.
The new learning, they said, Could help keep power grids and communication satellites out of harms way the next time solar activists threatened infrastructure on Earth and space.
On 16 july, the most important of the seven scientific instrument Aditya L1 is carrying Visible Emission Line Coronagraph,or Velc- captured date that helped scientists estimate the precise time a coronal mass ejection (CME) began.
Studying CMEs massive fireballs that blow out of the Suns outermost corona lyer is one of the most important scientists objectives of India’s maiden solar mission.
“Made up of energy particles,aCME could weigh up to trillion kilogram and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km [18,64miles] per second while travelling. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth, says prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics that designed Velc.
” Now imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth.At its top speed, it would take just about 15 hour to cover the 150milion km Earth sun distance.
The coronal ejection that Velc captured on16 July had started at 13:08GMT. Prof Ramesh, Velc s Principle Investigator who has published a paper on CME in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters said it originated on the side of the Earth.
But within half an hour of its journey, it got deflected and went in different direction,going behind the sun. As it was too far away, it did not impact Earth’s weather. ”
But solar storms, solar flarms and coronal mass ejections routinely impact Earths weather. They also impact the space weather where nearly 7,800 satellites, including more than 50 from India,are stationed.
According to space. Com they rarely pose a direct threat to human life,but they can cause mayhem on Earth by interfering with the Earths magnetic field.
Their most benign impact is causing beautiful auroras in places close to the North and South Pole. 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.
But the impact is much more serious in space where the charged particles of a cornal mass a ejection can make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction. They can knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites.
Today our lives fully depend on communication satellites and CMEs can trip the internet phone line and radio communication, Prof Ramesh says. That can lead to absolute chaos.
The most powerful solar storm in recorded history occurred in 1859. Called the carrington Even,it triggered intense auroral light shows and knocked out Telegraph lines across the globe.
Scientists at Nasa say an equally strong storm was headed at Earth in 2012 and we had a close shave just as perilous. They say a powerful coronal mass ejection tore through Earths orbit on 23 July but that we were incredibly fortunate”that instead of hitting our planet, the storm cloud hit Nasa’s solar Observatory STREO-A in space.
