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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European airports
• In February 2022, a CME caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

Initially, 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 much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.