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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale each.

Even though the numbers seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.