The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission

For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed 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 observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

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

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.