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

It's the first time the spacecraft – that entered into space last year – will be able to watch our star during its maximum activity cycle.

As per research, this occurs approximately every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the planet's poles swapping positions.

It's a time of great turbulence. It involves our star transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection can weigh of billions of tons and can attain velocities exceeding 2,000 miles per second. It can head out in any direction, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "Next year, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals of India's first solar observatory. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to learn about the Sun in the center of our planetary system, and secondly, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet by causing geomagnetic storms affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, comprising Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular displays of a CME include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star are travelling to Earth," the scientist clarifies.

"But they can also cause electronic systems on a satellite fail, disable electrical networks and disrupt meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Historical Solar Events

• The strongest solar storm ever recorded was the 1859 solar superstorm which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe
• In 1989, sections of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, affecting millions without power for hours
• In November 2015, solar activity disrupted flight operations, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft failing

With capability to see what happens in the solar atmosphere and spot solar activity or a coronal mass ejection in real time, measure its heat at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 has an advantage compared to rivals regarding studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun's bright surface to let scientists constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something the real Moon provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and thermal output – key clues that show the intensity a CME would be when traveling toward Earth.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, scientists collaborated analyzing the data gathered from a major CMEs recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship weighed much less.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – relative to the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though these figures make it sound incredibly large, the expert classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid that eliminated the dinosaurs on our planet was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs carrying power matching even more than that.

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

"The learnings from this will assist in work out protective measures to implement to protect satellites in near space. Additionally, they'll aid us gain deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.