The Reason 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.