🔗 Share this article

Regarding Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.