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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"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 says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.