The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Solar Observation Mission

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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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