The Reason 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for India's Sun Mission

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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

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

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.