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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.