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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire 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 per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.