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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity 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 power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.