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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged 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 toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are direct evidence that solar particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses 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 – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

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

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power 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 benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.