Why 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Solar Observation Mission

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated 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 offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. 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 with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.