🔗 Share this article

Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 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 a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.