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

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to observe our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per research, it comes roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the most important research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to people, yet they impact life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, being a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may 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 that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity 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 being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to effectively simulate the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated analyzing information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of TNT – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although these figures seem massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing protective measures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.