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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 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 a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing 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 nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy 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 evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.