🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.