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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly every 11 years as 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 peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. 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 two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat 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 space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

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

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.