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.
About the novel algorithm CIISCO
- The newly developed algorithm is named CME Identification in Inner Solar Corona (CIISCO).
- 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.
- The newly developed algorithm has been successfully tracked these accelerating solar eruptions in the lower corona.
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.
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- 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.
- CMEs and the solar flares, solar energetic particles, high-speed solar winds pose a serious threat to most of Earth’s space-based services along with the Global Positioning System (GPS), radio, and satellite-based telecommunication and can cause power grid failure.
Aditya - L1 India’s first mission to study the Sun
- The Aditya-1 mission is a 400kg 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 Sun-Earth 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)
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