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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

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 storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km 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 there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. Firstly, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison 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 – relative to nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider 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 when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.