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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 – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

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 per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.