Aditya-L1 and Proba-3 Join Forces to Decode Mysterious Solar Eruptions
India's Aditya-L1 and ESA's Proba-3 combine forces to decode Coronal Mass Ejections, revealing new secrets about the Sun's inner corona.
In a groundbreaking leap for solar physics, India's Aditya-L1 mission and Europe's Proba-3 have achieved the first-ever joint analysis of solar eruptions. By combining data from two different space-borne coronagraphs, scientists are now able to decode the complexities of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) with unprecedented precision, offering a clearer window into the violent processes occurring near the Sun.
The collaborative study, conducted by researchers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru, has been published in the prestigious journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The research focused on measuring the mass, density, and energetics of CMEs in the region closest to the solar disk—an area that has historically been incredibly difficult to observe.
The Challenge of the Inner Corona
Coronal Mass Ejections are massive bursts of magnetized plasma flung into interplanetary space. When these eruptions are aimed toward Earth, they can wreak havoc on the near-Earth space environment, potentially disrupting satellites and communication systems.
Despite their importance, observing CMEs very close to the Sun is a significant technical challenge. Previous space coronagraphs often only partially succeeded in capturing these events and struggled to track the early evolution of faint eruptions. This left a critical gap in scientific knowledge: researchers couldn't accurately determine how CME energy is divided between kinetic, thermal, and magnetic forms within the inner corona.
A Powerful Synergy: VELC and ASPIICS
The breakthrough came from pairing two distinct types of observations: spectroscopic and imaging.
- Aditya-L1 (VELC): India's first dedicated solar mission uses the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), developed by the IIA and ISRO. It captures spectroscopic observations of the solar corona between 1.05 and 1.5 solar radii.
- Proba-3 (ASPIICS): The European Space Agency's (ESA) precision formation-flying mission uses the ASPIICS coronagraph. By using two spacecraft flying 150 meters apart to create an artificial solar eclipse, it images the corona from 1.1 to 3 solar radii.
By merging the sharp imagery from ASPIICS—which provides accurate estimates of a CME's shape, dynamics, and mass—with the spectroscopic data from VELC—which reveals gas temperatures of about two million degrees—scientists obtained independent estimates of density and thermal energy.
Key Findings from the Solar Watch
Between July and December 2025, the team identified two specific CMEs, occurring on September 14 and 16, that were recorded simultaneously by both instruments. In both instances, the VELC instrument on Aditya-L1 captured the eruptions at an even earlier stage than ASPIICS, proving that the two tools complement each other perfectly.
Mission Milestones
The success of this joint study is built on the achievements of both missions:
- Aditya-L1 was launched via PSLV-C57 on September 2, 2023, and reached its halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point on January 6, 2024, allowing for uninterrupted solar monitoring.
- Proba-3 was launched from Sriharikota on December 5, 2024, via PSLV-XL, marking the world's first mission to utilize precision formation-flying to study the Sun.
According to ISRO, these results demonstrate the immense scientific potential of synergetic observations, providing new constraints on the early evolution of CMEs and a more complete, cross-checked view of how these solar storms originate.
This collaboration underscores the growing global scientific impact of Aditya-L1 and highlights the power of international coordination in unlocking the secrets of our nearest star.