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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable power grids and affect weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch 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 space observatories observing the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the solar disk and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

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

"The learnings from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.