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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once 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 of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated 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 reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.