The Reason 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission

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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

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

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm 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 out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

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

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.