Why the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission

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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.