🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.