🔗 Share this article Why 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Solar Observation Mission A massive solar eruption is much bigger than Earth Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other. It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle. As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions. It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona. Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun. "During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily." Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit. The aurora borealis lit up the darkness over the US last autumn Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit. "The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies. "However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft." Past Solar Events The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety. The Sun's corona can be seen when the Moon blocks the Sun from Earth The Mission's Special Capability There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona. "Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert. Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments. Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction. Readiness for Peak Period In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently. This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes. At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively. Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event. The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels. "In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states. "The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.