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

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed in orbit recently – will be able to watch our star when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, this occurs roughly once every 11 years as the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out from the solar corona.

Composed of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach velocities exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, the journey takes a CME 15 hours to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, the Sun launches a few solar eruptions daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections is one of the most important scientific objectives for the Indian first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

Coronal mass ejections rarely pose immediate danger to human life, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

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

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar event in history occurred during the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving six million people in darkness for nine hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed air traffic control, causing disruption across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see events on the Sun's corona and detect a solar storm or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and watch its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites redirecting them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

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

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the solar disk and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare allowing scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study eruptions using optical wavelengths, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues indicating the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Preparation for Peak Period

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

It originated on 13 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 reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were much smaller in scale respectively.

Although the numbers make it sound massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the benchmark that we'll be using assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The insights gained will assist in developing the countermeasures to be adopted to protect satellites in near space. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of our space environment," he adds.