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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves 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 the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.