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

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

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest 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 weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.