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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – 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 – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.