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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others 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 and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. 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 and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.