Why the Year 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.