Why 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

For India's first solar observatory, 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 watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

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