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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.