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

For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

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

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.