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

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed into space last year – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection 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 a CME about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Special Capability

There are other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.