🔗 Share this article Why 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection is much bigger than our planet Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique. This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle. According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions. It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer. Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass 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 our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance. "In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily." Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space. Northern lights lit up the night sky over the US last autumn Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit. "The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains. "However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Incidents The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 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, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety. The solar atmosphere is only visible when the Moon blocks the Sun from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability While 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 that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert. Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments. Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction. Preparation for Maximum Activity To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently. It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes. Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each. Although these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one. The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that. "In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says. "The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.