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

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up 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 a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.