🔗 Share this article

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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens 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 watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view 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, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.