Aditya L1 payload to probe solar storms that disrupted Elon Musk’s satellites

In an unprecedented turn of events, a massive geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare from the sun crippled at least 40 of the 49 satellites in February last year launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network.

The incident marked the largest collective loss of satellites due to a single geomagnetic event and raised questions about space weather preparedness.

The calamity unfolded on February 4, 2022, just a day after SpaceX had sent the satellites into a preliminary “low-deployment” orbit approximately 130 miles above Earth. However, the company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, did not anticipate the severity of the extreme space weather conditions unleashed by a solar storm that had occurred days earlier.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida almost coincided with a “geomagnetic storm watch” posted by the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center. The alert warned that solar flare activity from a “full halo coronal mass ejection” – a large blast of solar plasma and electromagnetic radiation from the sun’s surface – was detected was likely to reach Earth as early as February 1.

It is these coronal mass ejections that VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph), part of Aditya L1, is set to study, which could mitigate future satellite losses and other impacts on Earth due to solar storms.

Dr Muthu Priyal, Project Scientist and Operation Manager for VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) said that the Indian Institute of Astrophysics has developed unique software to detect and provide timely information about coronal mass ejections, helping the science community better understand and predict solar events that could impact Earth.

Aditya L1, with its advanced instruments like VELC, is set to provide crucial data for solar astrophysics research and its implications for daily life.

VELC, an internally occulted coronagraph, boasts advanced optics and precision alignment to capture images of the solar corona closer to the Sun’s disc than any other solar space observatory. Its high-resolution imaging capabilities will be instrumental in unravelling the mysteries of Coronal Mass Ejections and solving the Coronal Heating Problem, furthering our understanding of solar phenomena and their effects on Earth.