🔗 Share this article

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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.