🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise 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 coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

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

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.