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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.