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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.