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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

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

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.