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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

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

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using 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 near-Earth space," he adds.