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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.