Aurora over Ladakh validates India's space observation efforts: Astrophysicist | India News

All-sky cameras from the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Hanle, Ladakh and Merak captured the aurora during the night.

Dibyendu Nandy, head of the Indian Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI) at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, told PTI, “The sighting of the aurora is a validation that we are on the right track. Our reliance on extreme weather events in space could make predictions that could endanger all types of satellite-based services on Earth, paralyzing modern society.”

Space agencies and organizations such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitor space weather to provide timely information about interference from the Sun, which could cause communications outages and satellite outages.

Although auroras are known for their natural beauty, their occurrence in low-latitude regions like Ladakh is an indication of intensified solar activity in the form of solar storms known as Coronal Mass Ejections or CMES.

The Sun's internal dynamo process causes solar storms – which generate its magnetic field – to alternately intensify and weaken. This cycle of solar activity generally lasts 11 years. In 2018, Sisi's team, including Nandi as a member, predicted that the current cycle of solar activity would peak in 2024, a finding published in the journal Nature Communications.

“However, we continue to monitor solar activity to determine whether the current cycle has indeed peaked,” said Nandi.

An aurora occurs when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth's magnetic or magnetic field, which acts as a shield against harmful solar and cosmic rays. These particles pass through the shield, triggering the aurora.

The phenomenon is commonly seen in the far north of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Alaska and Russia, and throughout Iceland and Greenland.

However, recent auroras have also been witnessed in low-latitude regions of Mexico and Germany, Nandi added.

“The current solar cycle 25 is at its peak sunspot activity, significantly higher than the previous cycle 24,” said IIA professor SPK Rajaguru.

The current solar cycle is said to have started in December 2019, while the previous one started in December 2008.

On October 7, Nandi's team at CESSI was alerted to a possible adverse development of space weather when they observed multiple “active” regions of the Sun's magnetic field facing Earth.

“Some filaments (magnetic field structures cut into the lower solar atmosphere) are also observed in the Earth-facing solar disk. Filament burst-induced flares or coronal mass ejections are likely. Current near-Earth space weather conditions are moderately disturbed. ” CESSI said in an October 7 X post.

“That’s when our machine learning-based computer models first flagged the possibility of solar flares and associated solar storms,” he said.

The astrophysicist explained that a 'severe' solar storm is capable of triggering auroras and increasing the orbital decay of satellites, while an 'extreme' storm is capable of “killing satellites, disarming the power grid and causing large-scale communications blackouts”.

The team detected two Earth-directed solar storms, which led them to expect “a further increase in space weather conditions over the next 24 to 36 hours,” according to their Oct. 9 X post.

“For a notable fourth time during the current solar cycle, intense red auroral activity was observed in Ladakh, India, and photographed by astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Hanle, Leh and Merak, on October 10-11, 2024 ”, said the institute’s report. press statement.

Easily seen “without assistance”, the bright red bands that form the aurora begin to appear around 10:45 pm and intensify until dawn, he said.

Nandi said the aurora sighting “indicates the peak of the current solar cycle”.

However, it is not yet known whether the current cycle is peaking or not. It will likely be marked by less frequent solar storms and auroras over the years as the Sun's activity begins to wane, he added.

Nandi said the results are validation that we are on the right track and increase confidence in their ability to predict an “extreme” solar storm, the effects of which are likely to be more disruptive.

“The effects in such cases would not be limited to glasses for night sky observers, but would be much more damaging to communications, telecommunications and satellites, on which humanity has come to depend for its daily lives, such as navigation. , banking and other strategic services”, warned the astrophysicist.