The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

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

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in 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 reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.