🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions 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 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, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect 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 provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major 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 and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.