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

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the key scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to see 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, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

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

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.