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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.