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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

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

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.