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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

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

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.