🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison 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 space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.