India‘s maiden solar probe, Aditya L1, will track the Sun as it gets cloaked by the moon, creating a brief period of darkness in several parts of North America, during the Total Solar Eclipse. The Total Solar Eclipse will occur on April 8 as the Sun, Moon and Earth align in a straight line leading to darkness during the daytime. The cloaking will create a period of totality expected to last over four minutes, illuminating the enigmatic outer layer of the Sun that is not visible from Earth.
The Adiya L1 mission has six instruments as it observes the Sun from Lagrange Point 1, nearly 15 kilometres from Earth. Of the six, two instruments could be primed to observe the Sun during the eclipse. These are the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).
The coronagraph studies the Sun’s outer layer, the corona, by blocking the Sun’s disk and creating an artificial eclipse onboard the spacecraft. Meanwhile, the Suit images the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near ultraviolet.
During the eclipse, the Sun’s corona is visible as the Moon blocks the solar disk and reveals the outer bright layers shining, and can be seen from Earth for a brief moment. The corona is not visible, otherwise, from the planet.