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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed 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 solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.