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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting millions in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the solar disk permitting an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.