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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," says a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be over ten each day."

Studying CMEs ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays of a CME include northern lights, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos across Scandinavia and some other European airports
• In February 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, this serves as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's solar maximum, scientists worked together analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

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

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum occurs," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us developing the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.