🔗 Share this article

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

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

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.