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

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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons 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 an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.