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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the most important scientific objectives 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 occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories 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 enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.