Sun Mission: Aditya-L1 payload to send 1,440 images per day for analysis

Sun Mission: The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload of Aditya L1, the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun, which is scheduled to launch on Saturday, will send 1,440 photos each day to the ground station for analysis once it reaches its intended orbit. 

VELC, "the largest and technically most challenging" payload on Aditya-L1, was integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics' (IIA) CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology) facility in Hoskote, near here, with significant support from ISRO."

PSLV-C57 rocket will launch Aditya-L1 at 11:50 a.m. on September 2. It contains seven payloads that will study the Sun, four of which will view the Sun's light and the remaining three will measure in-situ plasma and magnetic field properties. Aditya-L1 will be deployed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the direction of the Sun. It will revolve around the Sun with the same relative position, allowing it to observe the Sun continuously.

Aditya L1 Project Scientist and Operation Manager for VELC Dr Muthu Priyal stated, "From the continuum channel, which is the imaging channel, an image will come -- one image per minute. So approximately 1,440 images for 24 hours, we will be receiving at the ground station."

She stated that the IIA will host the VELC Payload Operations Centre (POC), which will take raw data from ISRO's Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), process it further to make it suitable for scientific study, and then return it to ISSDC for dissemination.

"Also a unique software has been developed by IIA to detect automatically the occurrence of coronal mass ejection and the time it happened, which will be provided to the science community within 24 hours -- whether it is directed towards the earth or whether it is a very energetic event, if the speed is high, will it hit the earth or not, etc -- all those information will be made available," she further said.

According to IIA authorities, the 190 kg VELC payload will send photographs throughout the satellite's nominal life of five years, although it might last much longer depending on fuel use, etc.

According to K Sasikumar Raja of the IIA, the continuum channel will function independently and send 1,440 photos every day, while the other three spectroscopy channels will also provide images, depending on how the observer wants. The first photographs are expected to be available by the end of February, according to the IIA Scientists.

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