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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – can watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content equal to greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.