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Regarding India's first solar observatory, the year 2026 will be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – which was placed into space recently – can watch the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of ionized particles, a CME can weigh of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun emits a few solar eruptions a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching 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 star at the centre of our planetary system, and two, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that solar particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert clarifies.

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

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing chaos in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

If we are able to observe events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites redirecting them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as a synthetic eclipse, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing scientists 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, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

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

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in work out protective measures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.