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

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

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

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

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

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.