🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.