🔗 Share this article

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

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

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see 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 assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.