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The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), one of the primary payloads on board Aditya-L1, India’s first dedicated space-based solar mission, has now released its first complete set of calibrated science-ready data for the global research community, according to an announcement made on Wednesday.
SUIT was developed by a consortium led by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, with support from ISRO.
The complete SUIT data set is now available through the ISRO Science Data Archive (https://pradan.issdc.gov.in/al1/).
Aditya-L1, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 2, 2023, carries seven instruments to study the Sun across a wide spectral window ranging from hard X-rays to infrared, along with particle detectors spanning an unprecedented energy range. For the first time, SUIT has provided observations of the Sun in the near and mid-ultraviolet wavelength bands (2000–4000 Å), opening a new frontier in solar physics.
Professor A N Ramaprakash, Dean, Core Academic Programmes at Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), told The Indian Express that for the first time, the complete SUIT dataset will now be publicly available.
“The importance of this is that any astronomer across the world can carry out his/her studies by referring to this data, and it opens the path for discoveries related to solar activity,” Prof Ramaprakash said. “We are also conducting workshops so that training can be imparted, particularly to youngsters on how to navigate this data and help them understand and analyse the observations,” he added.
Earlier too, the SUIT team, in collaboration with the Aditya Science Support Cell, has carried out these workshops.
It may be recalled that SUIT was switched on November 20, 2023, and obtained its first light images on December 6, 2023, while the satellite was still cruising towards the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L1. Aditya-L1 was inserted into an orbit around L1 on January 6, 2024.
Following a rigorous verification and calibration phase that was completed by June 2024, the data are now fully processed and ready for scientific use.
The Sun, containing more than 99 per cent of the Solar System’s mass, serves as a natural laboratory for plasma physics. Its atmosphere presents some of the most intriguing mysteries in astrophysics, such as the coronal heating problem and the existence of a million-degree corona above cooler surface layers.
According to experts at IUCCA, ultraviolet radiation and energetic eruptions from the Sun strongly influence space weather, impacting satellites, communications, navigation systems, and even power grids on Earth.
“Understanding these processes is therefore crucial, not just for basic science but also for safeguarding space-based and ground-based systems,” a statement issued on Wednesday said.
The statement also added that another of SUIT’s prime objectives is to study solar radiation in the 2000–4000 Å band, constraining the Sun–climate connection and, for the first time, allowing detailed investigations into the spectral distribution of energy during solar flares. This unique capability is expected to provide new insights into the physics of solar eruptions and their energetics.
