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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg 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 explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. 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 help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.