Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) on Thursday handed over to ISRO, the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload on board Aditya-L1, which is India's first dedicated scientific mission to study the Sun, to be launched by June or July.

The handing over ceremony was held in the presence of the ISRO Chairman S Somanath at the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) campus of IIA near here.

IIA said it has successfully finished assembling, testing and calibrating the VELC, which is the largest and one of the most technically challenging of the seven payloads/telescopes that will fly on Aditya-L1, at its CREST campus.

ISRO will now conduct further testing of VELC and its eventual integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, it said in a release.

Congratulating the VELC team, Somanath said the launch of Aditya-L1 is expected to be around June or July.

He said, "Understanding the effect of the Sun on Earth and its surroundings has become very important now and Aditya-L1 aims to shed light on this topic. It has taken 15 years for VELC from concept to completion, and this period was needed for a complex system like this. The VELC has been the finest collaboration between IIA and ISRO"

Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L 1) of the Sun-Earth system.

This mission with seven payloads on board to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) will provide greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather, according to officials of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Noting that ISRO aims to play an important role in future science experiments in space and an ecosystem needs to be created for this, including a roadmap for the next few decades, Somnath said ISRO encourages Indian scientists to come up with new and novel ideas for future space science instruments that have not been done before by others in the world. "Many students tell me that they want to become astrophysicists and institutes like IIA should further enhance their efforts to explain their work to the public," he said. IIA Director Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, who released the official logo of the VELC payload, said “VELC is a team effort and is a major milestone for the institute. The effort has involved close collaboration between IIA, ISRO and many industries across India. We look forward to exciting science results coming from this payload after it is operational."

The space solar mission was initially conceived as Aditya-1 with a 400 kg class satellite carrying one payload (VELC), and was planned to be launched in an 800 km low earth orbit.

Since a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses, the mission was revised to Aditya-L1, and it would now be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth towards the Sun. The other six payloads are: Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment, Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya, Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer, High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer, and Magnetometer

The scientific studies by the satellite will enhance our current understanding of the Solar Corona and also provide vital data for space weather studies", ISRO officials said.

The Principal Investigator of the VELC payload, Prof Raghavendra Prasad explained that no other solar coronagraph in space has the ability to image the solar corona as close to the solar disk as VELC can.

"It can image it as close as 1.05 times the solar radius. It can also do imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry at the same time, and can take observations at a very high resolution (level of detail) and many times a second”, he said, adding that this capability will revolutionise solar astronomy around the world and the data is expected to answer many outstanding problems in the field.

Former Chairman of ISRO A S Kiran Kumar said, VELC is not a trivial piece of engineering and it has taken 15 years to produce such a complex system. "This augurs well for future space missions and I look forward to more such novel space science missions in the future."

Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) on Thursday handed over to ISRO, the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload on board Aditya-L1, which is India's first dedicated scientific mission to study the Sun, to be launched by June or July.

The handing over ceremony was held in the presence of the ISRO Chairman S Somanath at the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) campus of IIA near here.

IIA said it has successfully finished assembling, testing and calibrating the VELC, which is the largest and one of the most technically challenging of the seven payloads/telescopes that will fly on Aditya-L1, at its CREST campus.

ISRO will now conduct further testing of VELC and its eventual integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, it said in a release.

Congratulating the VELC team, Somanath said the launch of Aditya-L1 is expected to be around June or July.

He said, "Understanding the effect of the Sun on Earth and its surroundings has become very important now and Aditya-L1 aims to shed light on this topic. It has taken 15 years for VELC from concept to completion, and this period was needed for a complex system like this.
The VELC has been the finest collaboration between IIA and ISRO."

Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L 1) of the Sun-Earth system.

This mission with seven payloads on board to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) will provide greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather, according to officials of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Noting that ISRO aims to play an important role in future science experiments in space and an ecosystem needs to be created for this, including a roadmap for the next few decades, Somnath said ISRO encourages Indian scientists to come up with new and novel ideas for future space science instruments that have not been done before by others in the world.

"Many students tell me that they want to become astrophysicists and institutes like IIA should further enhance their efforts to explain their work to the public," he said.

IIA Director Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, who released the official logo of the VELC payload, said “VELC is a team effort and is a major milestone for the institute. The effort has involved close collaboration between IIA, ISRO and many industries across India. We look forward to exciting science results coming from this payload after it is operational." The space solar mission was initially conceived as Aditya-1 with a 400 kg class satellite carrying one payload (VELC), and was planned to be launched in an 800 km low earth orbit.

Since a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses, the mission was revised to Aditya-L1, and it would now be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth towards the Sun.

The other six payloads are: Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment, Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya, Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer, High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer, and Magnetometer The scientific studies by the satellite will enhance our current understanding of the Solar Corona and also provide vital data for space weather studies", ISRO officials said.

The Principal Investigator of the VELC payload, Prof Raghavendra Prasad explained that no other solar coronagraph in space has the ability to image the solar corona as close to the solar disk as VELC can.

"It can image it as close as 1.05 times the solar radius. It can also do imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry at the same time, and can take observations at a very high resolution (level of detail) and many times a second”, he said, adding that this capability will revolutionise solar astronomy around the world and the data is expected to answer many outstanding problems in the field.

Former Chairman of ISRO A S Kiran Kumar said, VELC is not a trivial piece of engineering and it has taken 15 years to produce such a complex system. "This augurs well for future space missions and I look forward to more such novel space science missions in the future."

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi: In a first, India is set to launch a dedicated scientific mission called Aditya-L1 to study the Sun. Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) on Thursday handed over to ISRO, the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload on board Aditya-L1, which is the mission to study the Sun. The mission is set to be launched by June or July.

The handing over ceremony was held in the presence of the ISRO Chairman S Somanath at the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) campus of IIA, according to a report by news agency PTI. IIA said it has successfully finished assembling, testing and calibrating the VELC, which is the largest and one of the most technically challenging of the seven payloads/telescopes that will fly on Aditya-L1, at its CREST campus.

ISRO will now conduct further testing of VELC and its eventual integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, it said in a release. Congratulating the VELC team, Somanath said the launch of Aditya-L1 is expected to be around June or July.

He said, “Understanding the effect of the Sun on Earth and its surroundings has become very important now and Aditya-L1 aims to shed light on this topic. It has taken 15 years for VELC from concept to completion, and this period was needed for a complex system like this. The VELC has been the finest collaboration between IIA and ISRO.”

Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L 1) of the Sun-Earth system.

This mission with seven payloads on board to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) will provide greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather, according to officials of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Noting that ISRO aims to play an important role in future science experiments in space and an ecosystem needs to be created for this, including a roadmap for the next few decades, Somnath said ISRO encourages Indian scientists to come up with new and novel ideas for future space science instruments that have not been done before by others in the world.

“Many students tell me that they want to become astrophysicists and institutes like IIA should further enhance their efforts to explain their work to the public,” he said.

IIA Director Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, who released the official logo of the VELC payload, said “VELC is a team effort and is a major milestone for the institute. The effort has involved close collaboration between IIA, ISRO and many industries across India. We look forward to exciting science results coming from this payload after it is operational.” The space solar mission was initially conceived as Aditya-1 with a 400 kg class satellite carrying one payload (VELC), and was planned to be launched in an 800 km low earth orbit.

Since a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses, the mission was revised to Aditya-L1, and it would now be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth towards the Sun.

The other six payloads are: Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment, Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya, Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer, High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer, and Magnetometer The scientific studies by the satellite will enhance our current understanding of the Solar Corona and also provide vital data for space weather studies”, ISRO officials said.

KiCad is undeniably the hacker favourite when it comes to PCB design, and we’ve built a large amount of infrastructure around it – plugins, integrations, exporters, viewers, and much more. Now, [Stargirl Flowers] is working on what we could call a web viewer for KiCad files – though calling the KiCanvas project a “KiCad viewer” would be an understatement, given everything it aims to let you do. It will help you do exciting things like copy-pasting circuits between KiCad and browser windows, embed circuits into your blog and show component properties/part numbers interactively, and of course, it will work as a standalone online viewer for KiCad files!

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Led by researcher engineers at West Virginia University, the study will be conducted on land donated by the High Technology Foundation and will also involve collaboration with First Energy Corp.

Anurag Srivastava, professor and chair of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, will support the construction and analysis of a "solar testbed" at the Tech Park.

Solar panels most commonly generate solar energy using photovoltaic cells, which create electrical charges when sunlight hits them. Currently, solar-generated electricity can power individual buildings where panels are installed. Researchers like Srivastava are working to Improve storage for solar power and "how the flow of solar energy into the main electrical grid impacts the system," he said.

With the solar power generated by the High Technology Foundation's 1-megawatt testbed and by multiple other solar initiatives launching around the region, Srivastava estimated 50 megawatts of solar energy could be integrated into West Virginia's power grid over the next several years. He said that's enough power to enable his team to "get a unique before-and-after perspective" on power grid performance once solar power joins other current sources of electricity for the grid, such as coal and natural gas.

Statler College Professor Parviz Famouri, Teaching Associate Professor Jignesh Solanki and Associate Professor Sarika Khushalani Solanki will support the technical analysis.

The West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 583, creating a state solar utility program, in 2020, but the state still lags compared to sunshine-rich states such as California, Texas and Florida when it comes to adoption of both industrial-scale solar power and home solar systems like rooftop panels.

According to Srivastava, "a more diverse grid that gets power from many different sources is better than an extremely centralized grid like we've have had in the past, where a few big facilities generate most of the electricity."

Srivastava sees promise in solar's ability to provide a backup source of power when portions of the grid are disconnected to minimize damage during a crisis such as December's earthquake in California or accurate attacks on substations in North Carolina.

"With a more diverse grid that draws on solar as well as other energies, you don't rely on one fuel source or a few plant locations," he said. "If a fuel source is not available or economical or the plant is offline, there are alternatives. Having those alternatives is crucial, especially in the case of extreme adverse events."

However, the more complex the grid, the more vulnerable it is. Solar farms use networked devices like sensors and inverters to integrate into the grid and that can report back on their performance. Srivastava emphasized that the connectivity of those devices makes them vulnerable to cyber attack.

Critics call solar unpredictable and intermittent due to changes in weather, with generation dropping anytime the sun's not shining brightly. Solar panels are also vulnerable to damage and dirt because they need to be exposed to the elements to capture the sun's rays.

"A main focus of this project is assessing the health of solar panels in our system," Srivastava said, "as well as monitoring the interface that connects the solar generation plant with the grid."

The intermittency of solar is why he's evaluating how well batteries can store solar-generated electricity, so power from those batteries can be integrated under controlled conditions, rather than allowing the unpredictable peaks and valleys of solar power to introduce uncertainty into the grid.

"The three basic measurements to assess power grid performance are voltage, current and frequency," Srivastava explained. "A fridge, cooking range, anything we have at home, is designed to operate at a fixed voltage. If we integrate solar, the impact on voltage may be different. We want to see that impact so we can make sure it's controlled. Our testbed sensor data will answer the question of whether we're controlling it successfully."

Already, apparent solar energy anomalies that occur when sudden cloud cover forms, for example, can look like an attack or disaster scenario to the humans and machines that maintain the grid's operation. To combat that, Srivastava's team will create AI programs that can use machine learning to distinguish the difference, drawing on real-time grid reports with weather data.

High Technology Foundation President and CEO James Estep serves as managing lead for the project. "The Public Service Commission's accurate move authorizing the deployment of solar farms in West Virginia is an important shift in the state's energy policy," Estep said, " The Solar Testbed Project will be valuable in addressing fundamental challenges throughout this deployment.

"The data analytics ecosystem we're establishing with WVU at the I-79 Technology Park in Fairmont positions the region to participate in the multibillion-dollar expansion of the commercial climate and weather industry."

©2023 the Times West Virginian (Fairmont, W. Va.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

© Provided by DNA

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), which was recently given to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), will be carried on the Aditya-L1 spacecraft. The IIA's Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) campus in Hoskote built the VELC, which will be the largest payload to be carried on the Aditya-L1. VELC integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will now be done by ISRO after further testing.

Aditya-L1 is India's first specifically designed solar research mission. With the VELC as its only payload, the mission—originally known as Aditya-1—was intended to be put into an 800km low-Earth orbit as a 400kg class satellite. The mission was later given the name Aditya-L1, and it will be placed in a halo orbit around the sun-earth system's first Lagrangian Point (L1). The sun may be seen constantly from this position, 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, without any occultation or eclipses.

The Aditya-L1 satellite carries  six additional payloads, including a magnetometer, the solar ultraviolet imaging telescope (SUIT), the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), the Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA), the Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), and the Solar Low Energy X-ray. By conducting comprehensive remote and on-site observations of the sun, these payloads enable expanded science scope and objectives.

Also read: Comet C/2022 E3: A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle; see the glowing green comet pass Earth next week

Aditya-internal L1's occulted solar coronagraph, known as the VELC payload, enables the simultaneous operation of spectro-polarimetry, imaging, and spectroscopy channels close to the solar limb. This is crucial for determining the solar corona's magnetic field as well as for researching the dynamics of the solar corona, the origins of coronal mass ejections, and its diagnostic parameters.

The mission is most likely planned for April or May of this year. The Aditya-L1 mission will significantly advance our knowledge of the sun and its effects on the Earth and represents a huge step forward for India in the fields of space science and solar research.

This year, CI broadens its offering of Deep Dive reports with a dedicated story on the large-format display market. Thus, in our upcoming April issue, we’ll explore not only DVLED technology but also large-format projection and tiled LCD videowalls. The goal is to apprise AV integrators of burgeoning trends so they can deliver on client expectations and optimize their businesses. CI is asking you — our audience — to take a short, five-minute survey regarding how your business deploys large-format display technology. Will you please add your voice to this one-of-a-kind industry study?

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Indian Institute of Astrophysics on Thursday handed over to Indian Space Research Organisation, the Visible Line Emission Coronagraph, the primary payload on board Aditya-L1, which is India's first dedicated scientific mission to study the Sun, to be launched by June or July.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The handing over ceremony was held in the presence of the ISRO Chairman S Somanath at the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology campus of IIA near in Bengaluru.

IIA said it has successfully finished assembling, testing and calibrating the VELC, which is the largest and one of the most technically challenging of the seven payloads/telescopes that will fly on Aditya-L1, at its CREST campus.

ISRO will now conduct further testing of VELC and its eventual integration with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, it said in a release.

Congratulating the VELC team, Somanath said the launch of Aditya-L1 is expected to be around June or July.

He said, "Understanding the effect of the Sun on Earth and its surroundings has become very important now and Aditya-L1 aims to shed light on this topic. It has taken 15 years for VELC from concept to completion, and this period was needed for a complex system like this. The VELC has been the finest collaboration between IIA and ISRO"

Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L 1) of the Sun-Earth system.

This mission with seven payloads on board to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) will provide greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather, according to officials of Indian Space Research Organisation.

Noting that ISRO aims to play an important role in future science experiments in space and an ecosystem needs to be created for this, including a roadmap for the next few decades, Somnath said ISRO encourages Indian scientists to come up with new and novel ideas for future space science instruments that have not been done before by others in the world.

"Many students tell me that they want to become astrophysicists and institutes like IIA should further enhance their efforts to explain their work to the public," he said.

IIA director Prof Annapurni Subramaniam, who released the official logo of the VELC payload, said VELC is a team effort and is a major milestone for the institute. The effort has involved close collaboration between IIA, ISRO and many industries across India. We look forward to exciting science results coming from this payload after it is operational."

The space solar mission was initially conceived as Aditya-1 with a 400 kg class satellite carrying one payload (VELC), and was planned to be launched in an 800 km low earth orbit.

Since a satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses, the mission was revised to Aditya-L1, and it would now be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth towards the Sun.

The other six payloads are: Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment, Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya, Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer, High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer, and Magnetometer

The scientific studies by the satellite will enhance our current understanding of the Solar Corona and also provide vital data for space weather studies", ISRO officials said.

The Principal Investigator of the VELC payload, Prof Raghavendra Prasad explained that no other solar coronagraph in space has the ability to image the solar corona as close to the solar disk as VELC can.

"It can image it as close as 1.05 times the solar radius. It can also do imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry at the same time, and can take observations at a very high resolution (level of detail) and many times a second," he said, adding that this capability will revolutionise solar astronomy around the world and the data is expected to answer many outstanding problems in the field.

Former chairman of ISRO A S Kiran Kumar said, VELC is not a trivial piece of engineering and it has taken 15 years to produce such a complex system.

"This augurs well for future space missions and I look forward to more such novel space science missions in the future."