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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – can observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

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

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.