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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.