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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.