🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.