The Reason 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others 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 and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.