🔗 Share this article Why the Year 2026 Will Be an Unprecedented Year for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A coronal mass ejection can be several times larger than our planet For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique. This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle. As per scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places. It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance. "During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day." Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis lit up the night sky across America last autumn Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit. "The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies. "But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Incidents The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way. The solar atmosphere can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth The Mission's Unique Advantage There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere. "The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic 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," says the researcher. Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments. Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth. Readiness for Maximum Activity To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently. This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes. At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively. Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event. The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels. "In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states. "The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.