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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent 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 ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

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

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic 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 the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.