🔗 Share this article

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

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

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.