🔗 Share this article

For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

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

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

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

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes 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 with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.