Aditya-L1 Reveals New Details About How Solar Storms Grow

By Space.Fan Editorial DeskSeptember 28, 2026 at 11:03 AM UTC

Scientists used a space telescope to capture the complex, 3D expansion of a massive solar eruption for the first time.

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The Drop

A Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, is a huge explosion of gas and magnetic fields from the Sun. When these clouds of solar material blast into space, they can eventually impact Earth. Understanding exactly how they t is difficult because they happen very quickly right near the Sun's surface. Scientists recently got a much clearer look at one of these eruptions that occurred on August 5, 2024. To study it, they used the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which is India's solar observatory, along with data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The team looked at the eruption using a special instrument on Aditya-L1 called the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph. This tool acts like a camera that blocks out the blinding light of the Sun, allowing us to see the faint, super-hot outer atmosphere. By using this, they captured detailed light signatures that showed how the solar material was moving in different directions at once. The researchers found that the cloud of gas did not just expand evenly. Instead, it pushed outward in a complex, uneven way that created a split appearance in their data. They built a 3D computer model to match what they saw, which confirmed that the eruption was tilted and expanding sideways as it shot away from the Sun.

Why It Matters

Knowing how a solar storm expands in its first few moments is a big deal for protecting technology. These storms can affect satellites, power grids, and radio communication on Earth. Before now, it was hard to tell exactly how fast different parts of the cloud were moving because we were mostly looking at flat, 2D images. By combining special light-reading tools with regular cameras, researchers can now track the speed and shape of these clouds more accurately. This helps scientists create better models to predict how and when a solar storm might arrive at Earth.

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The Catch

The study shows that while the model matches the data well, the speed of the solar material may actually be faster than what the instruments recorded. Because the eruption was so intense, the light signal moved past the edge of the telescope's measuring window, meaning the speed calculated is likely a minimum value rather than the total speed.

Put That in Perspective

Scientists have tracked solar eruptions for decades, but usually, they look at them from a distance where they appear simple. This new study is unique because it catches the action almost at the source. Future research will likely focus on using these combined observation methods to study more eruptions, helping to create a complete picture of how solar weather evolves.

Source September 28, 2026

Saurabh Tripathi, Tanmoy Samanta, Jayant Joshi

Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Pondicherry University·The Astrophysical Journal Letters·10.3847/2041-8213/aea295

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