🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe 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 – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.