Why the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Solar Observation Mission

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.