Aditya-L1 Mission Aditya-L1, Aditya-L1, India's first dedicated space mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2, 2023 by ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-57). After its launch, the spacecraft underwent a series of orbital maneuvers and was successfully inserted into a halo orbit around the first Lagrangian point (L1) in the Sun-Earth system on January 6, 2024. This L1 point, located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, offers the unique advantage of continuous, uninterrupted observation of the Sun, free from eclipses or occultation. Lagrange points are regions in space where the gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as the Sun and Earth, balance with the centripetal force acting on a smaller object. In the Sun-Earth system, these points allow a spacecraft to stay in a stable or quasi-stable position relative to the two bodies. There are five Lagrange points in the Sun-Earth system: L1, L2, and L3 These are collinear with the two large masses (Sun and Earth) and are inherently unstable, meaning small perturbations can cause a spacecraft to drift away. L4 and L5 These points form equilateral triangles with the Sun and Earth and are stable, allowing an object to remain at these points with less risk of drifting away.Aditya-L1's placement at L1 allows for continuous monitoring of solar activity and provides pristine measurements of solar particles and magnetic fields, free from the influence of Earth's magnetosphere. Aditya-L1 carries a suite of seven scientific payloads-four for remote sensing and three for in-situ measurements. The remote sensing in struments observe different layers of the Sun, including the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, using various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The in-situ payloads, including particle detectors and magnetometers, collect data on the local space environment around L1.The mission's objectives include studying the dynamics of the solar corona, investigating the origins of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, as well as understanding the impact of these solar activities at the L1 point. The mission will also focus on the source regions of solar spectral irradiance variation, particularly in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectral band. Aditya-L1 is expected to make significant contributions to our understanding of solar processes. Aditya-L1 Mission and Science Objectives The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is configured to carry he following scientific payloads: Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) Solar Ultra-violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) Solar Low-energy X-ray Spectrometer (SOLEXS) High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HELIOS) Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) MAGnetometer (MAG) These payloads are selected to carry out the following major science objectives originally planned with Aditya-L1 mission: Understand the acceleration phase of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) in the lower corona and flares to provide handle on the drivers of space weather Understand the physics of chromospheric and coronal heating mechanisms and their atmospheric couplings through multi-wavelength studies Understand the association of solar spectral irradiance variability and its source regions Coronal plasma diagnostics over active as well as quiet regions including coronal magnetic fields in the active region corona. Spatio temporal variability studies of particles and magnetic field at L1 point an indicators for the terrestrial space weather. Kinematic studies of CMEs, Coronal Interactive Regions (CIRs), and Interplanetary CMEs, at LI and its influence on the geo-effective events. Understand the source regions of geo-effective events using multi-payload observations. The payloads are located on Aditya-L1 spacecraft as shown in Figure below. Aditya-L1 Science Data Release On the occasion (6 Jan 2025) of the first year anniversary of successful insertion of Aditya-L1 in the halo orbit around L1, ISRO conducted the National Meet on Aditya-L1 payload performance and released the scientific data of Aditya-L1 in public domain for global utilization. Since then scientific data are released in public domain within 24- 48 hours of data acquisition. At present, around 30 TB of Aditya-L1 data is available in public domain. The data are available at https://www.issdc.gov.in/adityal1.html. On 6 Jan 2026, ISRO opened Aditya-L1 for proposal submission for Aditya-L1 observation time by national solar science community through the release of Announcement of Opportunity (AO). Two AO cycles (A01 and A02) have been released so far. Key Science Outcome The scientific outcomes from Aditya-L1 so far are significant and many scientific papers have been published in International peer reviewed journals. Aditya-L1 Topical collection has been completed (Solar Physics, 2025, 300). Since halo orbit insertion (6 Jan 2024) the number of papers published related to Aditya-L1 are around 50 numbers while the total publications related to Aditya-L.1 are 79. Some of the key science results are highlighted below: Solar storm study In May 2024, Earth experienced its strongest solar storm in over 20 years, now called "Gannon's storm." It was caused by huge solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs-massive clouds of hot gas and magnetic energy thrown from the Sun. When CMES reach Earth, they can disturb the planet's magnetic shield and affect satellites, GPS, communications, and power grids. A study published Indian scientists in Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests why this storm was so unusual. Researchers found that two CMEs collided in space, compressing their magnetic fields so strongly that the field lines broke and reconnected in new patterns. This process, called magnetic reconnection, suddenly reversed parts of the magnetic field. Satellite observations also showed particles gaining energy, supporting this finding. India's Aditya-L1 solar observatory played a key role, working with six U.S. satellites: Wind, ACE, THEMIS-C, STEREO-A, MMS, and DSCOVR. Together, they observed the storm from multiple locations in space. Aditya-Ll's magnetic field data helped scientists identify a huge reconnection region about 1.3 million kilometers wide. This was the first direct observation of such a large magnetic reconnection event inside a CME. The discovery improves our understanding of how solar storms change on their way to Earth and highlights India's growing role in space-weather research. Similarly, using observations from Aditya-L1 mission, together with data from other international space missions, ISRO scientists and research students studied a major solar storm that struck Earth in October 2024. Their study, published in The Astrophysical Journal in December 2025, found that the storm was triggered by a large eruption of solar plasma from the Sun. The most intense impact came from the storm's turbulent region, which Aditya-L1 helped identify. This region strongly squeezed Earth's magnetic field, pushing it unusually close to the planet and briefly exposing some geostationary satellites to harsh space conditions. Such effects are usually seen only during severe space-weather events. Observation of Coronal Mass Ejection Aditya-L1's VELC instrument observed a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), revealing a 50% coronal dimming which lasted for about 6 hours and around 30% temperature increase with heightened turbulence. It is also detected a redshifted plasma outflow at 10 km/s after ejection of CME. These observations confirm the CME's material ejection and highlight the Sun's magnetic field's influence on the CME's trajectory which are crucial for space weather science to help in space weather forecasting. Observations of strong solar flare Aditya-L1 instruments have observed an X6.3-class solar flare, one of the most intense categories of solar eruptions. What makes this discovery unique is that SUIT detected brightening in the near ultraviolet wavelength range (200-400 nm) -a wavelength range never observed before in such detail. These observations confirm and ascertain that the energy from the flare spread through different layers of the Sun's atmosphere, providing new insights into the complex physics behind these massive solar explosions.Observation of the flare as obtained from various SUIT filters. SUIT observed two bright kernels in various channels marked by arrows. The appearance of these bright kernels in NB02 and NB05 is highly interesting as these two filters observe the solar photosphere, which is lower than the chromospheric emissions. This implies that the effect of this flare affected the layers below the chromosphere. This article is written by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) [Published in DREAM 2047 Major National Scientific Missions & Programmes (June-July 2026 / Vol. 06) : A magazine by Department of Science & Technology, GoI]