The Reason the Year 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.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – 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 a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid 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 matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.