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Regarding India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit last year – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the Sun threaten systems on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including many from India, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history was the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

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.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to even more than that.

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

"The learnings from this will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.