The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.