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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during solar events," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study the data obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

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

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.