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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in 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 reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.