The Reason the Year 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out 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 even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.