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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.