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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered into space last year – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.