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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide 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 – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.