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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.