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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the spacecraft – which was placed into space last year – can watch our star when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

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

It's a time marked by intense activity. It involves 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 blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km per second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward our planet. At top speed, the journey takes a CME about half a day to traverse the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star emits two to three CMEs a day," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten daily."

Studying CMEs ranks among the key research goals for the Indian first solar observatory. One, because the ejections offer a chance to learn about the Sun at the centre of our planetary system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing magnetic disturbances that impact the weather in near space, where about thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations from solar eruptions are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event in history was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network was knocked out, leaving millions without power for nine hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, causing chaos across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size enabling it to effectively simulate lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere permitting continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during solar events," says the researcher.

In other words, this instrument acts like a synthetic eclipse, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – a feat the real Moon does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission that can study solar events using optical wavelengths, letting it determine eruption heat and thermal output – crucial data indicating the intensity of an eruption if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers collaborated to study information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began in September 2024 during early hours. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent comparable to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content equal to even more than that.

"In my view this eruption we analyzed happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the standard for future comparison to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will help us work out protective measures to be adopted to protect spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he adds.