🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, 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 the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.