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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – 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 toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison 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 – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.