Why 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study 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 space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass 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 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.