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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

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

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface endanger systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – 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 TNT – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Although these figures seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view the CME we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.