Why 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun 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 – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.