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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy 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 charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, which are direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the scientist explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving six million people without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

If we are able to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

While other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere around the clock, 365 days a year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has observed recently.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Although the numbers seem incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he states.

"The insights from this will help us developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid achieving a better understanding of our space environment," he concludes.