🔗 Share this article

For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun 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 is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.