Auroras In Ladakh Validate India’s Space Weather Monitoring Capabilities: Astrophysicists

New Delhi: Two days after auroras lit up the night sky in Leh, a team of astrophysicists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI) said that it was a validation of their efforts in space weather monitoring. They had predicted the event about 48-72 hours earlier. 

IIA’s all-sky cameras at Hanle and Merak in Ladakh captured the aurorae all through the night. 

“The aurora sightings are a validation that we are on the right track. It boosts our confidence to predict extreme weather events in space that can potentially endanger all kinds of satellite based services on Earth, bringing modern society to a standstill,” PTI quoted Dibyendu Nandi, head of CESSI at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, as saying,

Intense space weather can cause disruptions such as communication blackouts and satellite outages. 

The occurrence of aurora in lower-latitude regions like Ladakh indicates to 

While aurorae are known for their scenic beauty, their occurrence in lower-latitude regions like Ladakh is an indication of increased solar activity such as solar storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), Nandi added.

In an alert posted on X on October 9, CESSI said, “A filament eruption in the Sun triggered a fast magnetic storm (CME) yesterday. There is a moderate to high probability of Earth impact late night around 23:25 UT with an arrival speed ~ 757 km/s. Significant #SpaceWeather perturbations may result +”