🔗 Share this article

For Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection 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, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.