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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's 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 number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.