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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.