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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs approximately 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 of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.