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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.