Context:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that its Aditya-L1 solar mission has provided crucial insights into how intense solar storms affect Earth’s magnetosphere, especially during extreme space-weather events.
Key findings of the study
- The most severe impacts occurred when the turbulent region of a solar storm struck Earth.
- This turbulence strongly compressed Earth’s magnetic field, pushing it unusually close to the planet.
- As a result, some geostationary orbit satellites were briefly exposed to harsh space conditions, a phenomenon seen only during severe space-weather events.
About the Mission
- Mission Type: India’s first dedicated solar observatory
- Launch Vehicle: PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – XL configuration)
- Launched by: Indian Space Research Organisation
- Launch Date: September 2023
- Orbit: Halo orbit around L1 (Lagrange Point-1), ~1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun
- Objective: Continuous observation of the Sun without Earth’s shadow
