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

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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach 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 about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption 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 is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.