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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – can watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel in any direction, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and two, since events occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections seldom present immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The most powerful solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to see what happens on the Sun's corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to shut down power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

In other words, this instrument functions as a synthetic eclipse, blocking the solar glare allowing researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon provide only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

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

The space rock that eliminated 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 analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.