The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection 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 satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge 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 permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.