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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

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

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

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

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.