Why 2026 Is Set to Be an Unprecedented Year for India's Sun Mission

Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.