🔗 Share this article The Reason the Year 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for India's Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection is much bigger than Earth For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique. It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle. According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions. It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona. Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day." Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit. Northern lights illuminated the night sky across America last autumn Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed. "The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies. "But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites." Past Solar Incidents The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere can be seen during a total solar eclipse from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere. "The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher. In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments. Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth. Preparation for Maximum Activity In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now. It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less. At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively. Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one. The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that. "In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states. "The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.