For Aditya-L1, 2026 will be truly unique.
It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.
As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.
This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.
Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.
"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."
Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in space.
Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.
"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.
"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."
If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.
There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.
"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.
Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.
Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.
In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.
It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.
At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.
Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.
The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.
"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.
"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.
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