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

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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.