🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star 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 from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. 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 quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

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 watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

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