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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 – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes roughly every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or low-activity times, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more each day."

Researching CMEs ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. 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 Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, yet they impact our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, are stationed.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its trajectory, this serves as advanced warning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all solar atmosphere around the clock, throughout the year, even during solar events," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see CMEs with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison to evaluate what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. They will also help us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.