The Reason 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Solar Observation Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see 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 trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.