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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison 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 TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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