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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 – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see 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, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data indicating how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study information obtained from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.