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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

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

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.