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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.