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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

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

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something 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 a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.