The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Sun Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take 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," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.