🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.