🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.