Why 2026 Is Set to Be a Year Like No Other for the Indian Sun Mission

For Aditya-L1, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

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