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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves 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 fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons 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 our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.