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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to research, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario would be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities 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 about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin 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 observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during solar events," says the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, it's unique that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.