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

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 scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees our star transition from peaceful to violent and is marked by a significant rise in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km per second. It can travel toward various directions, including towards our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take a CME about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be over ten each day."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the key research goals of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions provide an opportunity to study the star in the center of our planetary system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present a direct threat to people, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from our star journey to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

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

Past Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm that disabled communication systems across the globe
• In 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at origin and watch its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

While other space observatories watching the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage over others when it comes to watching the corona.

"Aditya-L1's coronagraph is the exact size that lets it effectively simulate the Moon, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire solar atmosphere 24 hours a day, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission capable of examining eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists collaborated to study the data obtained from one of the largest CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of TNT – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons each.

Even though these figures make it sound massive, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth carried enormous energy and when solar peak occurs, there may be eruptions with energy content matching greater levels.

"I consider the CME we evaluated happened during periods was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The learnings gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding satellites in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he adds.