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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 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 the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.