🔗 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 observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.