The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Sun 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 last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.