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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once 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 marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.