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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability 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 origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

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