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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered 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 magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed 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 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 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 in real time, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it 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 eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.