The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

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

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.