Solar Storm That Recently Hit Earth Was Most Intense Since 2003: ISRO

admin — Tue, 14 May 2024 15:57:26 +0000

Multiple X-class flares and CMEs have hit the Earth in the past few days, ISRO said.

Bengaluru:

A powerful solar storm impacted Earth in early May 2024, triggered by the highly active region AR13664 in the Sun, ISRO said on Tuesday.

This region unleashed a series of X-class flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) directed at Earth.

According to ISRO, the resulting geomagnetic storm was the most intense since 2003, causing disruptions to communication and GPS systems.

“This is the biggest geomagnetic storm since 2003 in terms of its strength, as the flaring region on the Sun was as big as the historically important Carrington event that took place in 1859,” ISRO said in a statement.

Multiple X-class flares and CMEs have hit the Earth in the past few days, the space agency said.

“This (CME) had severe effects over high latitudes where trans-polar flights are already being reported to get diverted. More events are expected in the next few days,” ISRO noted.

The space agency said that the Indian sector got less affected as the main event of the storm happened in the early morning of May 11, when the ionosphere had not developed fully.

Also, being at lower latitudes, widespread outages haven’t been reported in India.

The Ionosphere was very turbulent over the Pacific and American sectors, ISRO said.

The Ionosphere is part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, between 80 and about 600 km where extreme ultraviolet and x-ray solar radiation ionises the atoms and molecules, thus creating a layer of electrons.

The ionosphere is important because it reflects and modifies radio waves used for communication and navigation.

The main punch of this event so far arrived in the early morning hours of May 11 in India, when the Ionosphere was not fully developed, ISRO said.

ISRO said it has mobilised all its observation platforms and systems to record the signatures of this event. Both Aditya-L1 and Chandrayaan-2 have made observations and signatures have been analysed.

“The ASPEX payload on-board Aditya-L1 is showing high speed solar wind, high temperature solar wind plasma and energetic ion flux till now,” the space agency said. PTI GMS ANE

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Moon Landing Done, India Aims For Sun. All We Know About ISRO Big Plan

admin — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 02:52:19 +0000

The spacecraft will extensively study the solar winds.

New Delhi:

As the Chandrayaan-3 rover conducts experiments on the moon, scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have set their eyes on their next target – the Sun.

The Aditya-L1, India’s first space observatory for solar research, is getting ready for launch at the country’s main spaceport in Sriharikota.

What will Aditya-L1 do?

Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona and study the solar atmosphere

The spacecraft will extensively study the solar winds, which can cause disturbance on Earth and are commonly seen as “auroras”.

In the long term, data from the mission could help better understand the sun’s impact on Earth’s climate patterns.

When will the Aditya-L1 mission launch?

The satellite is ready and has already reached Sriharikota, but the final date for the launch of Aditya-L1 will be announced in two days, ISRO chief S Somanath has said.

The event is expected to take place in the first week of September, with the space agency targetting a September 2 launch.

How far will the spacecraft travel?

The Aditya-L1 will hitch a ride on India’s heavy-duty launch vehicle, the PSLV, to travel 1.5 million kilometres.

“After the launch, it will take 125 days from the earth to reach Lagrange point 1 (L1). We have to wait till then,” says Mr Somanath.

It will head to a kind of parking lot in space where objects tend to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces, reducing fuel consumption for the spacecraft.

Those positions are called Lagrange Points, named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.

How much will the mission cost?

ISRO has earned a reputation for world-beating cost competitiveness in space engineering that executives and planners expect will boost its now-privatised space industry.

With the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India became the first country to land near the South Pole of the moon. The mission cost Rs 600 crore, equivalent to the cost of a couple of blockbuster Bollywood movies.

Aditya-L1 has been built at nearly half the cost of Chandrayaan-3. The government sanctioned Rs 378 crore in 2019 for the mission to study the Sun’s atmosphere. The ISRO hasn’t given an official update on costs yet.

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Solar Storm That Recently Hit Earth Was Most Intense Since 2003: ISRO

Moon Landing Done, India Aims For Sun. All We Know About ISRO Big Plan