🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

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

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.