Algorithm for Aditya L1 Mission

Context:

A group of researchers under the lead of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), has developed a novel algorithm for tracking the very fast accelerating Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which emerge from the interiors of the Sun.

What is the novel algorithm CISCO?

• The newly developed algorithm is named CME Identification in Inner Solar Corona (CISCO).
• It was jointly developed along with scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium.
• Significance: It would help as a foundation in planning research of the lesser-known lower corona region of the Sun using Aditya L1.
• It can track bubbles of gaseous matter associated with magnetic field lines ejected from the Sun’s inside.

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)

• It is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the solar corona.
• These ejections follow solar flares and are normally present during a solar prominence eruption.
• The plasma is released into the solar wind.
• Need: Due to limited technology of satellite and ground-based observatories in acquiring observations of CMEs from within the Sun’s interiors was difficult.
• Space environment, Weather, and climate around Earth are governed by the Sun.

Aditya – L1 India’s first mission to study the Sun

• The Aditya-1 mission is a 400-kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC).
• It was planned to launch in 800 km low earth orbit and now will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is around 1.5 million km from the Earth
  • A Satellite that is placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the SunEarth system will have the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses.
• Aditya-1 was meant to observe only the solar corona.
• The outer layer of the Sun which extends to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere) is termed the corona (6000K).