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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed to have occurred 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 states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.