🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, 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. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.