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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.