🔗 Share this article Why 2026 Will Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A massive solar eruption is much bigger than Earth For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique. This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle. According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions. It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona. Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun. "In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day." Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis lit up the night sky across America last autumn Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed. "The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains. "But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites." Historical Solar Incidents The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety. The Sun's corona is only visible during a total solar eclipse from our perspective Aditya-L1's Special Capability There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert. In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses. Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth. Readiness for Peak Period In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now. This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – 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 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each. Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one. The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels. "In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says. "The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.