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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.