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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption 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 – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

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

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.