Bengaluru, Dec 2: India’s Aditya-L1 satellite’s Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment payload has started operating and is operating normally, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Saturday. On September 2, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The first space-based observatory in India, Aditya-L1, is studying the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), situated approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.The Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS) and the SupraThermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) are two state-of-the-art instruments that are part of the Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), according to a statement from ISRO. September 10, 2023 was STEPS instrument functioning. Since its activation on November 2, 2023, the SWIS instrument has performed at its best. “SWIS operates in planes perpendicular to one another, utilising two sensor units with an impressive 360° field of view each,” the statement said. The device has successfully measured solar wind ions, mostly protons and alpha particles, according to ISRO.According to the agency, fluctuations in the counts of protons and alpha particles (doubly ionised helium, He2+) may be seen in a sample energy histogram that was obtained from one of the sensors over the course of two days in November 2023. “This comprehensive snapshot of solar wind behaviour was provided by the variations that were recorded with nominal integration time,” stated ISRO. According to the space agency, SWIS’s directional capabilities allow for accurate measurements of solar wind protons and alphas, which greatly aids in answering long-standing concerns regarding the characteristics of the solar wind, its underlying processes, and its effects on Earth.It is possible to infer information regarding the arrival of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L1 indirectly from changes in the proton and alpha particle number ratio that SWIS has detected, according to ISRO. For space weather research, the enhanced alpha-to-proton ratio is important since it is frequently thought to be one of the most sensitive indicators of the passage of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) at the L1.
