🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME 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 top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.