Aditya-L1 will study solar flares, wind which affect weather: Former ISRO scientist
Sep 01, 2023
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 1 : Ahead of the launch of India's maiden solar mission Aditya-L1, former ISRO scientist Tapan Misra said that it is an important project to study solar flares and the solar wind which affect the weather.
Tapan Misra said, "The project should have been launched in 2015 and it is already delayed. There is an 11-year cycle of the solar wind. This solar wind when it goes up creates a disturbance in the satellite communications and even the electrical distribution system on the ground. And it affects the weather because as the solar flares increase, more is the sun's surface temperature. When the solar flares are less the sun's temperature is also less and correspondingly the weather also changes."
Tapan Misra said that this launch is coming when there will be a maximum of the present solar cycle. Solar flares occur all over the surface and solar winds when ejected, it goes 360 degrees all around but only when it comes to Earth it is dangerous.
He said, "Aditya-L1 is a satellite that is well poised. If any solar wind comes towards Earth then we will get a warning much beforehand. The velocity of solar wind is 600km/sec so before it reaches Earth the measurements can give warning."
Aditya-L1 has four different types of instruments, he further said.
"One is measuring the solar surface signature in ultra-violet rays. Then there will be measurement of solar winds in terms of alpha particles per square kilometre. Concurrent measurements will give the intensity of solar winds and the direction can be confirmed and it can give warning to all instruments on Earth," he added.
Tapan Misra, former ISRO Scientist has been the Director of Space Applications Centre, and Physical Research Laboratory in ISRO. He was Senior Advisor to the Chairman, ISRO.
Aditya-L1 is India's first solar space observatory and will be launched by the PSLV-C57. It will carry seven different payloads to have a detailed study of the sun, four of which will observe the light from the sun and the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
As the countdown for India's maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 began on Friday, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath said that it is an important launch and the satellite will take 125 days to reach the L1 point.
Somanath offered prayers at Chengalamma Parameshwari Temple in Tirupati district, ahead of the launch of Aditya-L1 Mission, India's first solar mission, on September 2 at 11.50 am from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
