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For India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be truly unique.

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "In 2026, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections is one of the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

Impacts on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, knock down power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – something the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it determine eruption heat and heat energy – key clues that show the intensity of an eruption when traveling toward Earth.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight 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 explosives – relative to the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"I consider the CME we analyzed happened during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he says.

"The learnings gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to implement to protect satellites in near space. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.