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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees 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 blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.