What did Aditya-L1 find about solar eruptions in November 2026?

PIB (3 November 2026) and ISRO said scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics used Aditya-L1's Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory images, and 3D modelling to show that a coronal mass ejection on 5 August 2024 did not expand like a simple symmetric bubble. It expanded unevenly and took an asymmetric shape. The study is in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Why does asymmetric CME expansion matter for Earth?

PIB and ISRO quote the researchers saying an asymmetric early shape can change how a CME interacts with the solar wind and how much drag it feels. That can affect its speed and arrival time at Earth, which matters for satellites and communication networks. The papers do not claim a new arrival-time forecast for any specific storm.

What is VELC on Aditya-L1?

VELC is the primary payload on Aditya-L1. PIB describes it as an internally occulted coronagraph that studies nascent CMEs through spectroscopy in the 530.3 nm green emission line from highly ionised iron, capturing hot coronal plasma around 1.8 million Kelvin. Doppler shifts in that line show plasma motion toward or away from the observer. IIA designed and built it at the MGK Menon Lab in Hosakote with substantial ISRO support.

When was the CME that Aditya-L1 studied?

Lead author Saurabh Tripathi told PIB the team observed a CME on 5 August 2024 from an active region near the western limb of the Sun. That is the event in the paper. The PIB and ISRO notes about the finding were issued on 3 November 2026.

Where is Aditya-L1, and when was it launched?

PIB says Aditya-L1 launched in September 2023 and is operational at the Sun-Earth L1 point, with continuous solar observations and seven payloads. VELC is the primary payload.

Who wrote the Aditya-L1 CME study?

PIB and ISRO name Saurabh Tripathi (lead author, PhD student at IIA), Tanmoy Samanta (corresponding author), and Jayant Joshi, all at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. The paper is Spectroscopic Signatures of Nonuniform Lateral Expansion of a Coronal Mass Ejection in the Low Corona with ADITYA-L1/VELC, doi 10.3847/2041-8213/aea295.

Aditya-L1 Shows a Solar Eruption Expanding Unevenly, Not as a Bubble, Explained

India's solar observatory has put a fresh dent in a tidy picture of how storms leave the Sun. On 3 November 2026, the Press Information Bureau and ISRO highlighted a new study: a coronal mass ejection (CME) watched on 5 August 2024 did not expand outward like a simple symmetric bubble. It grew unevenly and took an asymmetric shape.

The work comes from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru. The team combined spectroscopy from Aditya-L1's Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) with images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and a three-dimensional geometric-kinematic model. The paper sits in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

That finding matters for anyone who cares when a solar storm might reach Earth. Shape and expansion early on can change how a CME feels drag from the solar wind, and that can shift speed and arrival timing.

The 60-second version

What: A CME on 5 August 2024 expanded asymmetrically near the Sun, not as a uniform bubble.
Who: IIA scientists Saurabh Tripathi, Tanmoy Samanta and Jayant Joshi.
How: Aditya-L1/VELC Doppler spectra + NASA SDO/AIA images + 3D modelling.
When announced: PIB and ISRO notes on 3 November 2026; paper in ApJ Letters.
Why it matters: Uneven early shape can change solar-wind drag, CME speed and Earth arrival timing, with implications for satellites and communications.
Where Aditya sits: Launched September 2023, operating at Sun-Earth L1, seven payloads, VELC primary.

What a CME is, in plain terms

A coronal mass ejection is a large blast of hot, magnetised plasma from the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona. ISRO's note stresses that CMEs aimed at Earth can disturb space weather and affect satellites and communications. Predicting speed and path depends on how the eruption evolves in three dimensions while it is still close to the Sun and changing fast.

Most coronagraphs image the faint outer corona by blocking the bright solar disk. Those images mostly show motion across the sky. They do not directly measure how fast plasma is moving toward or away from the observer. That missing line-of-sight speed is exactly where VELC adds something.

What VELC measured

PIB describes VELC as an internally occulted coronagraph that studies early CMEs through spectroscopy in the 530.3 nm green emission line from highly ionised iron. That line tracks hot coronal plasma at about 1.8 million Kelvin. A Doppler shift in the line shows velocity along the line of sight: blueward when plasma rushes toward us, redward when it rushes away.

Tripathi told PIB the team watched the 5 August 2024 CME from an active region near the Sun's western limb. VELC showed an unusual pattern: two distinct Doppler-shifted emission branches at once, one blueward and one redward, while the regular coronal emission weakened as the CME carried plasma outward. Samanta said AIA images tracked motion across the sky while VELC tracked motion toward and away from us. Together they show the bubble was not a simple sphere.

IIA designed and built VELC at the MGK Menon Laboratory for Space Sciences on the CREST campus in Hosakote, with substantial ISRO support, PIB and ISRO both say.

Why a symmetric bubble model failed

Joshi told PIB the team built a 3D geometric-kinematic model of an expanding CME shell and tested orientations and sideways expansion against the VELC spectra.

A symmetric expansion model could not reproduce the observed spectral pattern.
A model with an inclined CME axis and asymmetric lateral expansion matched the spectral pattern and its time evolution.

ISRO's note makes the same point: earlier work often treated CMEs as symmetric bubbles; this event did not behave that way close to the Sun.

Why space weather forecasts care

Joshi's line, as PIB carried it: an asymmetric early shape can change how a CME interacts with the solar wind and how much drag it feels in the heliosphere. That can influence speed and, ultimately, arrival time at Earth.

ISRO adds that shape differences may make arrival-time predictions harder and complicate assessments of space-weather impact. The public notes do not publish a revised Earth-hit clock for this August 2024 event, and this explainer does not invent one.

The researchers plan to apply the same VELC-plus-imaging method to other CMEs so they can reconstruct motion without always needing several spacecraft viewing from different angles. That is especially useful in the low corona, where eruptions evolve quickly and line-of-sight motion is hard to get from images alone.

Where Aditya-L1 fits

PIB's baseline facts on the mission:

Launched September 2023.
Operating at the Sun-Earth L1 point with continuous solar viewing.
Carries seven scientific payloads.
VELC is the primary payload.

Aditya-L1 is India's first dedicated space-based solar observatory. This paper is one concrete science product from that platform, not a new launch or a new instrument.

What this is not

It is not a claim that every CME expands unevenly. It is a detailed study of one well-observed event.
It is not, on the PIB/ISRO reporting, a new operational alert system for Indian satellite operators.
It does not replace multi-spacecraft viewing; it shows what one L1 spectrograph can add when paired with imaging and a model.

What to watch next

Follow-up papers applying the same VELC method to more CMEs, as the IIA team said it plans to do.
Whether forecast centres begin citing asymmetric early expansion when they explain arrival-time misses.
Other Aditya-L1 payloads releasing peer-reviewed results that sit alongside VELC's corona work.
Operational space-weather products that might eventually fold line-of-sight spectroscopy into routine alerts.
Any ISRO or IIA briefing that translates this geometry into clearer public guidance for satellite and radio operators.

A solar storm that leaves the Sun lopsided is harder to time at Earth than one that leaves as a neat bubble. Aditya-L1's VELC has now shown, for this August 2024 case, that the lopsided picture is the one the spectra support.

This explainer is compiled from the Press Information Bureau release of 3 November 2026 (12:17 pm), ISRO's public note of the same day, and DD News coverage of that announcement. Quotes from Saurabh Tripathi, Tanmoy Samanta and Jayant Joshi are as PIB attributed them. The paper is Spectroscopic Signatures of Nonuniform Lateral Expansion of a Coronal Mass Ejection in the Low Corona with ADITYA-L1/VELC (doi 10.3847/2041-8213/aea295). This page is for information only and is not a space-weather warning.