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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to 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 research, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving six million people in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.