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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 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 the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.