🔗 Share this article Why the Year 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Solar Observation Mission A massive solar eruption can be much bigger than Earth Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique. It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle. As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions. This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona. Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance. "In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily." Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space. Northern lights lit up the night sky over the US in November Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies. "But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites." Historical Solar Incidents The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere is only visible during a total solar eclipse from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher. In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments. Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction. Readiness for Maximum Activity In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now. It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each. Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one. The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels. "I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states. "The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.