Mumbai Feb 24 PTI A Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer CLASS a payload on-board Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has detected solar proton events which significantly increase the radiation exposure to humans in space the Indian Space Research Organisation has said The instrument on January 18 also recorded coronal mass ejections CMEs a powerful stream of ionised material and magnetic fields which reach the Earth a few days later leading to geomagnetic storms and lighting up the polar sky with auroras the ISRO said on Wednesday Such multi-point observations help us understand the propagation and its impact on different planetary systems it said When the sun is active spectacular eruptions called solar flares occur that sometimes also spew out energetic particles called solar proton events or SPEs into interplanetary space Most of these are high energy protons that impact space systems and significantly increase radiation exposure to humans in space They can cause ionisation on large scales in the earths middle atmosphere the space agency said Many intense solar flares are accompanied by CMEs a powerful stream of ionised material and magnetic fields which reach the earth a few days later leading to geomagnetic storms and lighting up the polar sky with auroras Solar flares are classified according to their strength The smallest ones are A-class followed by B C M and X Each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output This means that an M class flare is 10 times more intense than C-class flare and 100 times intense than B-class flare the ISRO said Within each letter class there is a finer scale from 1 to 9 - a M2 flare is twice the strength of M1 flare Recently there were two M-class solar flares One flare M55 spewed out energetic particles into interplanetary space and the other flare M15 was accompanied by a CME the space agency said The SPE event was seen by NASAs Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES orbiting around the Earth However the CME event was not detected by GOES Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer CLASS on-board Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter detected SPE due to an M55 class solar flare that occurred on January 20 2022 the ISRO said The CLASS instrument also detected a CME event as it passed through the moon due to an M15 class solar flare that occurred on January 18 it added The CME travels at a speed of about 1000 kms and it takes about two-three days to reach the Earth The signature of this event is missed by the GOES satellite as the earths magnetic field provides shielding from such events However the event was recorded by Chandrayaan-2 the ISRO said The CLASS payload on Chandrayaan-2 saw both the SPE and CME events pass by from two intense flares on the Sun it added Planned to land on the moons south pole Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22 2019 However the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7 2019 crashing Indias dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt The ISRO had then said the mission achieved 98 per cent success as the orbiter continues to share data with the ground station PTI PR RSY GK GK GK

Mumbai Feb 23 PTI A Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer CLASS a payload on-board Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has detected solar proton events SPEs which significantly increase radiation exposure to humans in space the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO said on WednesdayThe instrument on January 18 also recorded coronal mass ejections CMEs a powerful stream of ionised material and magnetic fields which reach the Earth a few days later leading to geomagnetic storms and lighting up the polar sky with auroras it saidSuch multi-point observations help us understand the propagation and its impact on different planetary systems the ISRO saidWhen the Sun is active spectacular eruptions called solar flares occur that sometimes also spew out energetic particles called Solar Proton Events or SPEs into interplanetary spaceMost of these are high energy protons that impact space systems and significantly increase radiation exposure to humans in space They can cause ionisation on large scales in Earths middle atmosphere the space agency saidMany intense solar flares are accompanied by CMEs a powerful stream of ionised material and magnetic fields which reach the Earth a few days later leading to geomagnetic storms and lighting up the polar sky with aurorasSolar flares are classified according to their strength The smallest ones are A-class followed by B C M and X Each letter represents a 10-fold increase in energy output This means that an M class flare is ten times more intense than C-class flare and 100 times intense than B-class flare the ISRO saidWithin each letter class there is a finer scale from 1 to 9 - a M2 flare is twice the strength of M1 flareRecently there were two M-class solar flares One flare M55 spewed out energetic particles into interplanetary space and the other flare M15 was accompanied by a Coronal Mass Ejection CME the space agency saidThe SPE event was seen by NASAs Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES satellite orbiting around Earth However the CME event was not detected by GOESChandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer CLASS on-board Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter detected SPE due to an M55 class solar flare that occurred on January 20 2022 the ISRO saidThe CLASS instrument also detected a CME event as it passed through the moon due to an M15 class solar flare that occurred on January 18 it addedCME travels at a speed of about 1000 kms and it takes about 2-3 days to reach the EarthThe signature of this event is missed by the GOES satellite as Earths magnetic field provides shielding from such events However the event was recorded by Chandrayaan-2 the ISRO saidThe CLASS payload on Chandrayaan-2 saw both the SPE and CME events pass by from two intense flares on the Sun it addedPlanned to land on the South Pole of the Moon Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22 2019 However the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7 2019 crashing Indias dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attemptThe ISRO had then said the mission had achieved 98 per cent of the success as the orbiter continues to share data with the ground station PTI PR RSY RSY