The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by 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 can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day 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 a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.