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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

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

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations 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 on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.