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

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

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.