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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun threaten systems on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

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

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

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing the data obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.