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Regarding 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 our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects 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 Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"But they can also cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at origin and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, 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 for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.