Why the Year 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

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