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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs roughly once every 11 years when the Sun's magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of fire that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of ionized particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh 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 our planet. At top speed, the journey takes an ejection 15 hours to cover the 150 million km between Earth and the Sun.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits two to three CMEs daily," says an astrophysics expert. "Next year, it's anticipated there will be over ten each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface endanger systems on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs rarely pose immediate danger to human life, yet they impact life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey to Earth," the expert explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft fail, disable power grids and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Incidents

• The strongest solar storm in history occurred during the Carrington Event which knocked out telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, a part of Canadian electrical network failed, leaving millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disrupted flight operations, causing disruption across Scandinavia and various European air hubs
• In February 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and detect 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 electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during eclipses and occultations," notes the expert.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona – something natural eclipses provide only during eclipses.

Additionally, it's unique capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and heat energy – crucial data that show how strong a CME would be when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for the upcoming solar maximum, scientists worked together to study information obtained from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were much smaller and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers seem incredibly large, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on our planet carried enormous energy and during the Sun's maximum activity cycle, there may be eruptions carrying power matching greater levels.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated happened when the Sun of typical solar activity. Now this sets the standard that we'll be using assessing what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights gained will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in orbit. Additionally, they'll aid us gain a better understanding of our space environment," he adds.