· Aditya-I
is India's first dedicated scientific mission to study the sun.
· Aditya-L1
mission is aimed at studying the Sun from an orbit around the Sun-Earth
Lagrangian point 1 (L1) which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth.
· It
would carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the
outermost layers of the Sun, the corona in different wavebands.
· Aditya-L1
can provide observations on the corona and in addition can provide observations
on the solar Chromosphere using the UV payload and on the flares using the
X-ray payloads.The particle detectors and the magnetometer payload can provide
information on charged particles and the magnetic field reaching the halo orbit
around L1.
Therefore, the Aditya-1
mission has now been revised to “Aditya-L1 mission” and will be inserted in a
halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth. .
.
The
satellite carries additional six payloads with enhanced science scope and
objectives.
· Aditya-1
was meant to observe only the solar corona.
· The
outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of km above the disc
(photosphere) is termed as the corona.
· It
has a temperature of more than a million degree Kelvin which is much higher
than the solar disc temperature of around 6000K. How the corona gets heated to
such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics.
· Aditya-L1
with additional experiments can now provide observations of Sun's Corona (soft
and hard X-ray, Emission lines in the visible and NIR), Chromosphere (UV) and
photosphere (broadband filters).
· In
addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun
and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the
variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1.
· These
payloads have to be placed outside the interference from the Earth’s magnetic
field and could not have been useful in the low earth orbit.
· The
main payload continues to be the coronagraph with improved capabilities. The main optics for this experiment remains
the same.
.
.
The
complete list of payloads, their science objective and lead institute for
developing the payload is provided below:
Visible
Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC): To study the diagnostic
parameters of solar corona and dynamics and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (3
visible and 1 Infra-Red channels); magnetic field measurement of solar corona
down to tens of Gauss – Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA)
Solar
Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT): To image the spatially
resolved Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultraviolet (200-400 nm)
and measure solar irradiance variations - Inter-University Centre for Astronomy
& Astrophysics (IUCAA)
Aditya
Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) : To study the variation of
solar wind properties as well as its distribution and spectral characteristics
– Physical Research Laboratory (PRL)
Plasma Analyser Package for
Aditya (PAPA) : To
understand the composition of solar wind and its energy distribution – Space
Physics Laboratory (SPL), VSSC .
.
Solar
Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) : To monitor the X-ray flares
for studying the heating mechanism of the solar corona – ISRO Satellite Centre
(ISAC)
High
Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS): To
observe the dynamic events in the solar corona and provide an estimate of the
energy used to accelerate the particles during the eruptive events - ISRO
Satellite Centre (ISAC)and Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO), PRL
Magnetometer: To
measure the magnitude and nature of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field –
Laboratory for Electro-optic Systems (LEOS) and ISAC.
With
the inclusion of multiple payloads, this project also provides an opportunity
to solar scientists from multiple institutions within the country to
participate in space based instrumentation and observations. Thus the enhanced Aditya-L1 project will
enable a comprehensive understanding of the dynamical processes of the sun and
address some of the outstanding problems in solar physics.
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