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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth 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.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.