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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to scientific data, this occurs approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

This period marked by intense activity. It involves the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar storms and massive solar flares – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out 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 velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to traverse the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

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

Studying CMEs is one of the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Impacts on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing disruption in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, measure its heat at origin and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down power grids and satellites and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other solar missions watching our star, India's spacecraft holds an edge over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to measure eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists worked together to study the data gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

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

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to be adopted safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of our space environment," he concludes.