Bengaluru researchers have captured rare synchronized data from two solar observatories, unlocking new details about how violent eruptions escape the Sun’s corona. The observations came from India’s Aditya-L1 mission and Europe’s Proba-3 satellites.
Both spacecraft watched nearly identical regions of the inner corona during July through December 2025. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) paired the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) aboard Aditya-L1 with ASPIICS, the coronagraph flying on Proba-3. Their collaboration delivered independent measurements of mass, density, and energy from coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.
ASPIICS provided sharp white-light and green emission line images, letting researchers calculate a CME’s shape, speed, and mass. Meanwhile, VELC contributed spectroscopic data tracking gas heated to roughly two million degrees. That thermal signature yielded separate density and energy readings. As a result, the team cross-checked findings from instruments built with different designs and assumptions.
Two CMEs appeared in both datasets. The September 14 event raced outward at about 645 kilometers per second. The September 16 eruption moved far slower, just 145 kilometers per second. Density in the slower CME fell more sharply with altitude, signaling stronger early expansion.
Despite contrasting techniques, mass and thermal energy estimates from ASPIICS and VELC matched closely. Thermal energy in the fast CME represented only about one percent of its total. In the slower event, thermal energy climbed until it equaled kinetic energy. Magnetic energy estimates equaled or exceeded kinetic energy in both cases.
The findings demonstrate how pairing imaging with spectroscopy creates a more complete, verified picture of CME origins. These dual observations now give researchers fresh constraints on the earliest stages of solar storm evolution.
