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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch our star during 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 planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features 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 ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.