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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 into space recently – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching 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 standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.