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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up 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 head out toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

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

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

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

"The learnings gained will help us developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.