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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

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

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated to study the data obtained from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.