🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

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

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.