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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to 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 almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.