🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.