🔗 Share this article

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

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

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.