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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.