🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.