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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

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 carrying power equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.