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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.