Why the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission

For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 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 researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison 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 – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist 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, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.