🔗 Share this article The Reason 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission A massive solar eruption is much bigger than our planet For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other. This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle. According to scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places. It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features 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 ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance. "In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily." Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis lit up the darkness over the US in November Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies. "However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites." Past Solar Incidents The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way. The Sun's corona is only visible when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments. Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth. Readiness for Maximum Activity To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now. It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each. Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one. The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels. "I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states. "The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.