Why 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.