The Reason the Year 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

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

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.