🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise 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 charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.