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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

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

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated analyzing information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.