Why 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Solar Observation Mission

For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

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

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

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

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.