🔗 Share this article

For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.