🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

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

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting 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.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.