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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – can watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards 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 quiet periods, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see what happens on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its trajectory, 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

While other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – 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 a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.