For Aditya-L1, India's first solar observation mission in space, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.
It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year - will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.
According to NASA, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip - the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.
It's a time of great turbulence. It sees 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 fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer called the corona.
Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain speeds of up to 3,000 km (about 1,864 miles) per second. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km distance from the Earth to the Sun.
During normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day, says Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily.
Prof Ramesh is the principal investigator on the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc - the most important of the seven scientific instruments on Aditya-L1 - and closely monitors and decodes the data it gathers.
Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission, he says. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.
CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they can affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including 136 from India, are stationed.
The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from the Sun are travelling to Earth, Prof Ramesh explains.
However, CMEs can also disrupt electronics on satellites, knock down power grids, and affect weather and communication satellites.
The powerful solar storms can have significant historical impacts, including events like the Carrington Event in 1859, which disrupted telegraph communications across the globe and more recent disturbances that affected power grids and air traffic.
As we approach 2026, the data gathered by Aditya-L1 will prove invaluable in creating countermeasures to protect critical infrastructure from potential solar disruptions. This mission not only aims to enhance our understanding of solar phenomena but also provides strategic insights into safeguarding our planet from cosmic activity.
