🔗 Share this article

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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.