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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, 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 the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

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

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider 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 when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.