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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

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

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.