🔗 Share this article

For 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 our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

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

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.