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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption 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 occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.