BENGALURU, Jan 10: ISRO on Saturday said its Aditya-L1 solar mission has provided new insights into how a powerful solar storm can impact Earth’s magnetic shield.
“The most severe effects occurred during the impact of the turbulent region of the solar storm,” the space agency said in a statement.
In a breakthrough study published in the Astrophysical Journal in December 2025, ISRO scientists and research students analysed a major space weather event that struck Earth in October 2024.
The study used observations from Aditya-L1, India’s first solar observatory, along with data from other international space missions to decode the impact of a massive eruption of solar plasma from the Sun.
“Space weather refers to conditions in space caused by transient activity on the Sun, such as solar plasma eruptions, which can affect satellites, communication and navigation services, and power grid infrastructure on Earth,” the statement said.
According to ISRO, the turbulent region of the solar storm “strongly compressed Earth’s magnetic field, pushing it unusually close to the Earth and briefly exposing some satellites in geostationary orbit to harsh space conditions.” The space agency noted that this phenomenon occurs only during severe space weather events.
The study also revealed that during the turbulent phase, currents in the auroral region (high latitudes) super-intensified, a process that could heat the upper atmosphere and lead to enhanced atmospheric escape.
ISRO said the findings reinforce the need for close monitoring of solar activity, noting that the study highlights the importance of understanding of space weather phenomena and their real-time assessments to safeguard the critical space assets.
ISRO TO LAUCH EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE
ISRO will kick off its 2026 launch calendar on January 12 with the PSLV C62 mission to deploy the EOS-N1 earth observation satellite and 14 other payloads into space.
Undertaken by the NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, the 14 other co-passenger satellites belong to domestic and overseas customers.
“The integration of the vehicle and the satellites has been completed and pre-launch checks are in progress. The PSLV-C62 mission is proposed to lift-off on January 12 at 10.17 hrs, from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota,” ISRO said on Saturday.
The 25-hour countdown is scheduled to commence on January 11, for the mission which would be the 64th flight of PSLV.
The Earth Observation Satellite has been built jointly by Thailand and the United Kingdom, ISRO said.
The entire mission is expected to be more than two hours after lift off at 10.17 am on January 12.
The primary payload – ‘Earth Observation Satellite’ built by Thailand and the United Kingdom, will fly piggyback along with 13 other co-passenger satellites, which would be deployed into the intended sun-synchronous orbit around 17 minutes after lift-off.
However, the separation of the fourth stage of the rocket (PS4) and demonstration of Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID) capsule belonging to a Spanish startup, is expected to take place in over 2 hours after the launch.
ISRO said scientists would restart the fourth stage of the rocket to demonstrate the KID capsule to make its re-entry into the earth atmosphere. For this to occur, the scientists would re-start the fourth stage to de-boost and enter a re-entry trajectory, and this will be followed by the KID capsule separation.
Both the PS4 stage and the KID capsule (which will be the last co-passenger) will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and make a splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, ISRO said.
PSLV has completed 63 flights so far, including the ambitious Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 mission. (PTI)
