The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Solar Observation Mission

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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.