Why the Year 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

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

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.