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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

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

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.