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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling 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."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem 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 matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.