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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity 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.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms 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 can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

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