SUIT Telescope on board Aditya-L1 observes Solar Flare, rare plasma ejection in UV light

ISRO on Wednesday announced that the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) onboard Aditya-L1 Mission observed powerful SolarFlare and a first of its kind Rare Plasma ejection in Ultra-Violet Light.

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On December 31, 2023, the Aditya-L1 mission witnessed the Sun unleashing an enormous solar flare (an X-class solar flare) that hurled a glowing plasma ‘blob' off the sun.

Cameras aboard the SUIT payload of Aditya-L1 watched the rare ejection of plasma blob move from a leisurely 300 km per second speed to a blistering speed of 1500 km per secondwith this speed one can circle the entire earth in half a minute.

This was for the first time; such an eruption is caught in near-ultraviolet light which offers scientist a new class of data sets to understand solar phenomena more deeply, ISRO said, in an update.

Solar Flares are highly energetic explosions in the solar atmosphere. These are characterized as sudden, intense bursts of energy caused by the release of magnetic energy.

During solar flares, a huge amount of radiation is emitted and energetic particles are ejected. These both impact the space weather and geo-space environment, including effects such as disruption in radio communication, power grid disturbances, satellite damage, risk to astronauts and flights etc.