🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

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 per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study 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 measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.