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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.