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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections 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 nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated to have occurred during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.