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

This marks the initial occasion the spacecraft – which was placed into space recently – will be able to watch our star during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario could be the planet's poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It involves our star changing from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach 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 an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," says a leading scientist. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the key scientific objectives for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, as these eruptions offer a chance to study the star at the centre of our planetary system, and secondly, since events that take place on the solar surface endanger infrastructure on our planet and in orbit.

Effects on Earth and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in Earth's vicinity, where about 11,000 satellites, including many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions include northern lights, being a clear example that solar particles from our star journey to Earth," the expert clarifies.

"However, they may make all the electronics on a satellite fail, disable power grids and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems across the globe
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid failed, leaving millions in darkness for hours
• In November 2015, solar storms disturbed flight operations, leading to disruption in Sweden and various European air hubs
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites failing

With capability to observe what happens in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and track its path, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Unique Advantage

There are other space observatories observing our star, Aditya-L1 holds an edge over others regarding 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 almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, throughout the year, even during solar events," notes the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let researchers continuously observe its faint outer corona – a feat natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, letting it measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information obtained from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. The eruption's weight totaled billions of tons – the iceberg that sank Titanic weighed much less.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius with energy equivalent was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were much smaller in scale each.

Even though these figures seem incredibly large, the scientist describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see CMEs carrying power equal to greater levels.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred during periods of typical solar activity. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle arrives," he says.

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