🔗 Share this article

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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. 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 explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.